No. 5--THE SEARCHER OF THE END HOUSE
It was still evening, as I remember, and the four of us, Jessop,Arkright, Taylor and I, looked disappointedly at Carnacki, where he satsilent in his great chair.
We had come in response to the usual card of invitation, which--as youknow--we have come to consider as a sure prelude to a good story; andnow, after telling us the short incident of the Three Straw Platters, hehad lapsed into a contented silence, and the night not half gone, as Ihave hinted.
However, as it chanced, some pitying fate jogged Carnacki's elbow, or hismemory, and he began again, in his queer level way:--
"The 'Straw Platters' business reminds me of the 'Searcher' Case, which Ihave sometimes thought might interest you. It was some time ago, in facta deuce of a long time ago, that the thing happened; and my experience ofwhat I might term 'curious' things was very small at that time.
"I was living with my mother when it occurred, in a small house justoutside of Appledorn, on the South Coast. The house was the last of arow of detached cottage villas, each house standing in its own garden;and very dainty little places they were, very old, and most of themsmothered in roses; and all with those quaint old leaded windows, anddoors of genuine oak. You must try to picture them for the sake of theircomplete niceness.
"Now I must remind you at the beginning that my mother and I had lived inthat little house for two years; and in the whole of that time there hadnot been a single peculiar happening to worry us.
"And then, something happened.
"It was about two o'clock one morning, as I was finishing some letters,that I heard the door of my mother's bedroom open, and she came to thetop of the stairs, and knocked on the banisters.
"'All right, dear,' I called; for I suppose she was merely reminding methat I should have been in bed long ago; then I heard her go back to herroom, and I hurried my work, for fear she should lie awake, until sheheard me safe up to my room.
"When I was finished, I lit my candle, put out the lamp, and wentupstairs. As I came opposite the door of my mother's room, I saw that itwas open, called good night to her, very softly, and asked whether Ishould close the door. As there was no answer, I knew that she haddropped off to sleep again, and I closed the door very gently, and turnedinto my room, just across the passage. As I did so, I experienced amomentary, half-aware sense of a faint, peculiar, disagreeable odor inthe passage; but it was not until the following night that I _realized_ Ihad noticed a smell that offended me. You follow me? It is so often likethat--one suddenly knows a thing that really recorded itself on one'sconsciousness, perhaps a year before.
"The next morning at breakfast, I mentioned casually to my mother thatshe had 'dropped off,' and I had shut the door for her. To my surprise,she assured me she had never been out of her room. I reminded her aboutthe two raps she had given upon the banister; but she still was certain Imust be mistaken; and in the end I teased her, saying she had grown soaccustomed to my bad habit of sitting up late, that she had come to callme in her sleep. Of course, she denied this, and I let the matter drop;but I was more than a little puzzled, and did not know whether to believemy own explanation, or to take the mater's, which was to put the noisesdown to the mice, and the open door to the fact that she couldn't haveproperly latched it, when she went to bed. I suppose, away in thesubconscious part of me, I had a stirring of less reasonable thoughts;but certainly, I had no real uneasiness at that time.
"The next night there came a further development. About two thirty a.m.,I heard my mother's door open, just as on the previous night, andimmediately afterward she rapped sharply, on the banister, as it seemedto me. I stopped my work and called up that I would not be long. As shemade no reply, and I did not hear her go back to bed, I had a quick senseof wonder whether she might not be doing it in her sleep, after all, justas I had said.
"With the thought, I stood up, and taking the lamp from the table, beganto go toward the door, which was open into the passage. It was then I gota sudden nasty sort of thrill; for it came to me, all at once, that mymother never knocked, when I sat up too late; she always called. You willunderstand I was not really frightened in any way; only vaguely uneasy,and pretty sure she must really be doing the thing in her sleep.
"I went quickly up the stairs, and when I came to the top, my mother wasnot there; but her door was open. I had a bewildered sense thoughbelieving she must have gone quietly back to bed, without my hearingher. I entered her room and found her sleeping quietly and naturally; forthe vague sense of trouble in me was sufficiently strong to make me goover to look at her.
"When I was sure that she was perfectly right in every way, I was stilla little bothered; but much more inclined to think my suspicion correctand that she had gone quietly back to bed in her sleep, without knowingwhat she had been doing. This was the most reasonable thing to think, asyou must see.
"And then it came to me, suddenly, that vague, queer, mildewy smell inthe room; and it was in that instant I became aware I had smelt the samestrange, uncertain smell the night before in the passage.
"I was definitely uneasy now, and began to search my mother's room;though with no aim or clear thought of anything, except to assure myselfthat there was nothing in the room. All the time, you know, I never_expected really_ to find anything; only my uneasiness had to be assured.
"In the middle of my search my mother woke up, and of course I had toexplain. I told her about her door opening, and the knocks on thebanister, and that I had come up and found her asleep. I said nothingabout the smell, which was not very distinct; but told her that the thinghappening twice had made me a bit nervous, and possibly fanciful, and Ithought I would take a look 'round, just to feel satisfied.
"I have thought since that the reason I made no mention of the smell, wasnot only that I did not want to frighten my mother, for I was scarcelythat myself; but because I had only a vague half-knowledge that Iassociated the smell with fancies too indefinite and peculiar to beartalking about. You will understand that I am able _now_ to analyze andput the thing into words; but _then_ I did not even know my chief reasonfor saying nothing; let alone appreciate its possible significance.
"It was my mother, after all, who put part of my vague sensationsinto words:--
"'What a disagreeable smell!' she exclaimed, and was silent a moment,looking at me. Then:--'You feel there's something wrong?' still lookingat me, very quietly but with a little, nervous note of questioningexpectancy.
"'I don't know,' I said. 'I can't understand it, unless you've reallybeen walking about in your sleep.'
"'The smell,' she said.
"'Yes,' I replied. 'That's what puzzles me too. I'll take a walk throughthe house; but I don't suppose it's anything.'
"I lit her candle, and taking the lamp, I went through the otherbedrooms, and afterward all over the house, including the threeunderground cellars, which was a little trying to the nerves, seeing thatI was more nervous than I would admit.
"Then I went back to my mother, and told her there was really nothing tobother about; and, you know, in the end, we talked ourselves intobelieving it was nothing. My mother would not agree that she might havebeen sleepwalking; but she was ready to put the door opening down to thefault of the latch, which certainly snicked very lightly. As for theknocks, they might be the old warped woodwork of the house cracking abit, or a mouse rattling a piece of loose plaster. The smell was moredifficult to explain; but finally we agreed that it might easily be thequeer night smell of the moist earth, coming in through the open windowof my mother's room, from the back garden, or--for that matter--from thelittle churchyard beyond the big wall at the bottom of the garden.
"And so we quietened down, and finally I went to bed, and to sleep.
"I think this is certainly a lesson on the way we humans can deludeourselves; for there was not one of these explanations that my reasoncould really accept. Try to imagine yourself in the same circumstances,and you will see how absurd our attempts to explain the happeningsreally were.
"In the morning, when I came down to breakfast, we talked it all overagain, and whilst we agreed that it was strange, we also agreed that wehad begun to imagine funny things in the backs of our minds, which now wefelt half ashamed to admit. This is very strange when you come to lookinto it; but very human.
"And then that night again my mother's door was slammed once more justafter midnight. I caught up the lamp, and when I reached her door, Ifound it shut. I opened it quickly, and went in, to find my mother lyingwith her eyes open, and rather nervous; having been waked by the bang ofthe door. But what upset me more than anything, was the fact that therewas a disgusting smell in the passage and in her room.
"Whilst I was asking her whether she was all right, a door slammedtwice downstairs; and you can imagine how it made me feel. My motherand I looked at one another; and then I lit her candle, and taking thepoker from the fender, went downstairs with the lamp, beginning to feelreally nervous. The cumulative effect of so many queer happenings wasgetting hold of me; and all the _apparently_ reasonable explanationsseemed futile.
"The horrible smell seemed to be very strong in the downstairs passage;also in the front room and the cellars; but chiefly in the passage. Imade a very thorough search of the house, and when I had finished, I knewthat all the lower windows and doors were properly shut and fastened, andthat there was no living thing in the house, beyond our two selves. ThenI went up to my mother's room again, and we talked the thing over for anhour or more, and in the end came to the conclusion that we might, afterall, be reading too much into a number of little things; but, you know,inside of us, we did not believe this.
"Later, when we had talked ourselves into a more comfortable state ofmind, I said good night, and went off to bed; and presently managed toget to sleep.
"In the early hours of the morning, whilst it was still dark, I was wakedby a loud noise. I sat up in bed, and listened. And from downstairs, Iheard:--bang, bang, bang, one door after another being slammed; at least,that is the impression the sounds gave to me.
"I jumped out of bed, with the tingle and shiver of sudden fright on me;and at the same moment, as I lit my candle, my door was pushed slowlyopen; I had left it unlatched, so as not to feel that my mother was quiteshut off from me.
"'Who's there?' I shouted out, in a voice twice as deep as my naturalone, and with a queer breathlessness, that sudden fright so often givesone. 'Who's there?'
"Then I heard my mother saying:--
"'It's me, Thomas. Whatever is happening downstairs?'
"She was in the room by this, and I saw she had her bedroom poker in onehand, and her candle in the other. I could have smiled at her, had it notbeen for the extraordinary sounds downstairs.
"I got into my slippers, and reached down an old sword bayonet from thewall; then I picked up my candle, and begged my mother not to come; but Iknew it would be little use, if she had made up her mind; and she had,with the result that she acted as a sort of rearguard for me, during oursearch. I know, in some ways, I was very glad to have her with me, as youwill understand.
"By this time, the door slamming had ceased, and there seemed, probablybecause of the contrast, to be an appalling silence in the house.However, I led the way, holding my candle high, and keeping the swordbayonet very handy. Downstairs we found all the doors wide open; althoughthe outer doors and the windows were closed all right. I began to wonderwhether the noises had been made by the doors after all. Of one thingonly were we sure, and that was, there was no living thing in the house,beside ourselves, while everywhere throughout the house, there was thetaint of that disgusting odor.
"Of course it was absurd to try to make believe any longer. There wassomething strange about the house; and as soon as it was daylight, I setmy mother to packing; and soon after breakfast, I saw her off by train.
"Then I set to work to try to clear up the mystery. I went first to thelandlord, and told him all the circumstances. From him, I found thattwelve or fifteen years back, the house had got rather a curious namefrom three or four tenants; with the result that it had remained empty along while; in the end he had let it at a low rent to a Captain Tobias,on the one condition that he should hold his tongue, if he saw anythingpeculiar. The landlord's idea--as he told me frankly--was to free thehouse from these tales of 'something queer,' by keeping a tenant in it,and then to sell it for the best price he could get.
"However, when Captain Tobias left, after a ten years' tenancy, there wasno longer any talk about the house; so when I offered to take it on afive years' lease, he had jumped at the offer. This was the whole story;so he gave me to understand. When I pressed him for details of thesupposed peculiar happenings in the house, all those years back, he saidthe tenants had talked about a woman who always moved about the house atnight. Some tenants never saw anything; but others would not stay out thefirst month's tenancy.
"One thing the landlord was particular to point out, that no tenant hadever complained about knockings, or door slamming. As for the smell, heseemed positively indignant about it; but why, I don't suppose he knewhimself, except that he probably had some vague feeling that it was anindirect accusation on my part that the drains were not right.
"In the end, I suggested that he should come down and spend the nightwith me. He agreed at once, especially as I told him I intended to keepthe whole business quiet, and try to get to the bottom of the curiousaffair; for he was anxious to keep the rumor of the haunting fromgetting about.
"About three o'clock that afternoon, he came down, and we made athorough search of the house, which, however, revealed nothing unusual.Afterward, the landlord made one or two tests, which showed him thedrainage was in perfect order; after that we made our preparations forsitting up all night.
"First, we borrowed two policemen's dark lanterns from the stationnearby, and where the superintendent and I were friendly, and as soon asit was really dusk, the landlord went up to his house for his gun. I hadthe sword bayonet I have told you about; and when the landlord got back,we sat talking in my study until nearly midnight.
"Then we lit the lanterns and went upstairs. We placed the lanterns, gunand bayonet handy on the table; then I shut and sealed the bedroom doors;afterward we took our seats, and turned off the lights.
"From then until two o'clock, nothing happened; but a little after two,as I found by holding my watch near the faint glow of the closedlanterns, I had a time of extraordinary nervousness; and I bent towardthe landlord, and whispered to him that I had a queer feeling somethingwas about to happen, and to be ready with his lantern; at the same time Ireached out toward mine. In the very instant I made this movement, thedarkness which filled the passage seemed to become suddenly of a dullviolet color; not, as if a light had been shone; but as if the naturalblackness of the night had changed color. And then, coming through thisviolet night, through this violet-colored gloom, came a little nakedChild, running. In an extraordinary way, the Child seemed not to bedistinct from the surrounding gloom; but almost as if it were aconcentration of that extraordinary atmosphere; as if that gloomy colorwhich had changed the night, came from the Child. It seems impossible tomake clear to you; but try to understand it.
"The Child went past me, running, with the natural movement of the legsof a chubby human child, but in an absolute and inconceivable silence. Itwas a very small Child, and must have passed under the table; but I sawthe Child through the table, as if it had been only a slightly darkershadow than the colored gloom. In the same instant, I saw that afluctuating glimmer of violet light outlined the metal of the gun-barrelsand the blade of the sword bayonet, making them seem like faint shapes ofglimmering light, floating unsupported where the tabletop should haveshown solid.
"Now, curiously, as I saw these things, I was subconsciously aware that Iheard the anxious breathing of the landlord, quite clear and labored,close to my elbow, where he waited nervously with his hands on thelantern. I realized in that moment that he saw nothing; but waited in thedarkness, for my warning to come true.
"Even a
s I took heed of these minor things, I saw the Child jump to oneside, and hide behind some half-seen object that was certainly nothingbelonging to the passage. I stared, intently, with a most extraordinarythrill of expectant wonder, with fright making goose flesh of my back.And even as I stared, I solved for myself the less important problem ofwhat the two black clouds were that hung over a part of the table. Ithink it very curious and interesting, the double working of the mind,often so much more apparent during times of stress. The two clouds camefrom two faintly shining shapes, which I knew must be the metal of thelanterns; and the things that looked black to the sight with which I wasthen seeing, could be nothing else but what to normal human sight isknown as light. This phenomenon I have always remembered. I have twiceseen a somewhat similar thing; in the Dark Light Case and in that troubleof Maetheson's, which you know about.
"Even as I understood this matter of the lights, I was looking to myleft, to understand why the Child was hiding. And suddenly, I heard thelandlord shout out:--'The Woman!' But I saw nothing. I had adisagreeable sense that something repugnant was near to me, and I wasaware in the same moment that the landlord was gripping my arm in a hard,frightened grip. Then I was looking back to where the Child had hidden. Isaw the Child peeping out from behind its hiding place, seeming to belooking up the passage; but whether in fear I could not tell. Then itcame out, and ran headlong away, through the place where should have beenthe wall of my mother's bedroom; but the Sense with which I was seeingthese things, showed me the wall only as a vague, upright shadow,unsubstantial. And immediately the child was lost to me, in the dullviolet gloom. At the same time, I felt the landlord press back againstme, as if something had passed close to him; and he called out again, ahoarse sort of cry:--'The Woman! The Woman!' and turned the shadeclumsily from off his lantern. But I had seen no Woman; and the passageshowed empty, as he shone the beam of his light jerkily to and fro; butchiefly in the direction of the doorway of my mother's room.
"He was still clutching my arm, and had risen to his feet; and now,mechanically and almost slowly, I picked up my lantern and turned onthe light. I shone it, a little dazedly, at the seals upon the doors;but none were broken; then I sent the light to and fro, up and down thepassage; but there was nothing; and I turned to the landlord, who wassaying something in a rather incoherent fashion. As my light passedover his face, I noted, in a dull sort of way, that he was drenchedwith sweat.
"Then my wits became more handleable, and I began to catch the drift ofhis words:--'Did you see her? Did you see her?' he was saying, over andover again; and then I found myself telling him, in quite a levelvoice, that I had not seen any Woman. He became more coherent then, andI found that he had seen a Woman come from the end of the passage, andgo past us; but he could not describe her, except that she keptstopping and looking about her, and had even peered at the wall, closebeside him, as if looking for something. But what seemed to trouble himmost, was that she had not seemed to see him at all. He repeated thisso often, that in the end I told him, in an absurd sort of way, that heought to be very glad she had not. What did it all mean? was thequestion; somehow I was not so frightened, as utterly bewildered. I hadseen less then, than since; but what I had seen, had made me feeladrift from my anchorage of Reason.
"What did it mean? He had seen a Woman, searching for something. _I_ hadnot seen this Woman. _I_ had seen a Child, running away, and hiding fromSomething or Someone. _He_ had not seen the Child, or the otherthings--only the Woman. And _I_ had not seen her. What did it all mean?
"I had said nothing to the landlord about the Child. I had been toobewildered, and I realized that it would be futile to attempt anexplanation. He was already stupid with the thing he had seen; and notthe kind of man to understand. All this went through my mind as we stoodthere, shining the lanterns to and fro. All the time, intermingled with astreak of practical reasoning, I was questioning myself, what did it allmean? What was the Woman searching for; what was the Child running from?
"Suddenly, as I stood there, bewildered and nervous, making randomanswers to the landlord, a door below was violently slammed, and directlyI caught the horrible reek of which I have told you.
"'There!' I said to the landlord, and caught his arm, in my turn. 'TheSmell! Do _you_ smell it?'
"He looked at me so stupidly that in a sort of nervous anger, I shookhim.
"'Yes,' he said, in a queer voice, trying to shine the light from hisshaking lantern at the stair head.
"'Come on!' I said, and picked up my bayonet; and he came, carrying hisgun awkwardly. I think he came, more because he was afraid to be leftalone, than because he had any pluck left, poor beggar. I never sneer atthat kind of funk, at least very seldom; for when it takes hold of you,it makes rags of your courage.
"I led the way downstairs, shining my light into the lower passage, andafterward at the doors to see whether they were shut; for I had closedand latched them, placing a corner of a mat against each door, so Ishould know which had been opened.
"I saw at once that none of the doors had been opened; then I threw thebeam of my light down alongside the stairway, in order to see the mat Ihad placed against the door at the top of the cellar stairs. I got ahorrid thrill; for the mat was flat! I paused a couple of seconds,shining my light to and fro in the passage, and holding fast to mycourage, I went down the stairs.
"As I came to the bottom step, I saw patches of wet all up and down thepassage. I shone my lantern on them. It was the imprint of a wet footon the oilcloth of the passage; not an ordinary footprint, but a queer,soft, flabby, spreading imprint, that gave me a feeling ofextraordinary horror.
"Backward and forward I flashed the light over the impossible marks andsaw them everywhere. Suddenly I noticed that they led to each of theclosed doors. I felt something touch my back, and glanced 'roundswiftly, to find the landlord had come close to me, almost pressingagainst me, in his fear.
"'It's all right,' I said, but in a rather breathless whisper, meaning toput a little courage into him; for I could feel that he was shakingthrough all his body. Even then as I tried to get him steadied enough tobe of some use, his gun went off with a tremendous bang. He jumped, andyelled with sheer terror; and I swore because of the shock.
"'Give it to me, for God's sake!' I said, and slipped the gun from hishand; and in the same instant there was a sound of running steps up thegarden path, and immediately the flash of a bull's-eye lantern upon thefan light over the front door. Then the door was tried, and directlyafterward there came a thunderous knocking, which told me a policeman hadheard the shot.
"I went to the door, and opened it. Fortunately the constable knew me,and when I had beckoned him in, I was able to explain matters in avery short time. While doing this, Inspector Johnstone came up thepath, having missed the officer, and seeing lights and the open door.I told him as briefly as possible what had occurred, and did notmention the Child or the Woman; for it would have seem too fantasticfor him to notice. I showed him the queer, wet footprints and how theywent toward the closed doors. I explained quickly about the mats, andhow that the one against the cellar door was flat, which showed thedoor had been opened.
"The inspector nodded, and told the constable to guard the door at thetop of the cellar stairs. He then asked the hall lamp to be lit, afterwhich he took the policeman's lantern, and led the way into the frontroom. He paused with the door wide open, and threw the light all 'round;then he jumped into the room, and looked behind the door; there was noone there; but all over the polished oak floor, between the scatteredrugs, went the marks of those horrible spreading footprints; and the roompermeated with the horrible odor.
"The inspector searched the room carefully, and then went into the middleroom, using the same precautions. There was nothing in the middle room,or in the kitchen or pantry; but everywhere went the wet footmarksthrough all the rooms, showing plainly wherever there were woodwork oroilcloth; and always there was the smell.
"The inspector ceased from his search of the rooms, and spent a minute i
ntrying whether the mats would really fall flat when the doors were open,or merely ruckle up in a way as to appear they had been untouched; but ineach case, the mats fell flat, and remained so.
"'Extraordinary!' I heard Johnstone mutter to himself. And then he wenttoward the cellar door. He had inquired at first whether there werewindows to the cellar, and when he learned there was no way out, exceptby the door, he had left this part of the search to the last.
"As Johnstone came up to the door, the policeman made a motion of salute,and said something in a low voice; and something in the tone made meflick my light across him. I saw then that the man was very white, and helooked strange and bewildered.
"'What?' said Johnstone impatiently. 'Speak up!'
"'A woman come along 'ere, sir, and went through this 'ere door,' saidthe constable, clearly, but with a curious monotonous intonation that issometimes heard from an unintelligent man.
"'Speak up!' shouted the inspector.
"'A woman come along and went through this 'ere door,' repeated the man,monotonously.
"The inspector caught the man by the shoulder, and deliberately sniffedhis breath.
"'No!' he said. And then sarcastically:--'I hope you held the door openpolitely for the lady.'
"'The door weren't opened, sir,' said the man, simply.
"'Are you mad--' began Johnstone.
"'No,' broke in the landlord's voice from the back. Speaking steadilyenough. 'I saw the Woman upstairs.' It was evident that he had got backhis control again.
"'I'm afraid, Inspector Johnstone,' I said, 'that there's more in thisthan you think. I certainly saw some very extraordinary things upstairs.'
"The inspector seemed about to say something; but instead, he turnedagain to the door, and flashed his light down and 'round about the mat. Isaw then that the strange, horrible footmarks came straight up to thecellar door; and the last print showed _under_ the door; yet thepoliceman said the door had not been opened.
"And suddenly, without any intention, or realization of what I wassaying, I asked the landlord:--
"'What were the feet like?'
"I received no answer; for the inspector was ordering the constable toopen the cellar door, and the man was not obeying. Johnstone repeated theorder, and at last, in a queer automatic way, the man obeyed, and pushedthe door open. The loathsome smell beat up at us, in a great wave ofhorror, and the inspector came backward a step.
"'My God!' he said, and went forward again, and shone his light down thesteps; but there was nothing visible, only that on each step showed theunnatural footprints.
"The inspector brought the beam of the light vividly on the top step; andthere, clear in the light, there was something small, moving. Theinspector bent to look, and the policeman and I with him. I don't want todisgust you; but the thing we looked at was a maggot. The policemanbacked suddenly out of the doorway:
"'The churchyard,' he said, '... at the back of the 'ouse.'
"'Silence!' said Johnstone, with a queer break in the word, and I knewthat at last he was frightened. He put his lantern into the doorway, andshone it from step to step, following the footprints down into thedarkness; then he stepped back from the open doorway, and we all gaveback with him. He looked 'round, and I had a feeling that he was lookingfor a weapon of some kind.
"'Your gun,' I said to the landlord, and he brought it from the fronthall, and passed it over to the inspector, who took it and ejected theempty shell from the right barrel. He held out his hand for a livecartridge, which the landlord brought from his pocket. He loaded the gunand snapped the breech. He turned to the constable:--
"'Come on,' he said, and moved toward the cellar doorway.
"'I ain't comin', sir,' said the policeman, very white in the face.
"With a sudden blaze of passion, the inspector took the man by the scruffand hove him bodily down into the darkness, and he went downward,screaming. The inspector followed him instantly, with his lantern and thegun; and I after the inspector, with the bayonet ready. Behind me, Iheard the landlord.
"At the bottom of the stairs, the inspector was helping the policeman tohis feet, where he stood swaying a moment, in a bewildered fashion; thenthe inspector went into the front cellar, and his man followed him instupid fashion; but evidently no longer with any thought of running awayfrom the horror.
"We all crowded into the front cellar, flashing our lights to and fro.Inspector Johnstone was examining the floor, and I saw that the footmarkswent all 'round the cellar, into all the corners, and across the floor. Ithought suddenly of the Child that was running away from Something. Doyou see the thing that I was seeing vaguely?
"We went out of the cellar in a body, for there was nothing to befound. In the next cellar, the footprints went everywhere in that queererratic fashion, as of someone searching for something, or followingsome blind scent.
"In the third cellar the prints ended at the shallow well that had beenthe old water supply of the house. The well was full to the brim, and thewater so clear that the pebbly bottom was plainly to be seen, as we shonethe lights into the water. The search came to an abrupt end, and we stoodabout the well, looking at one another, in an absolute, horrible silence.
"Johnstone made another examination of the footprints; then he shone hislight again into the clear shallow water, searching each inch of theplainly seen bottom; but there was nothing there. The cellar was full ofthe dreadful smell; and everyone stood silent, except for the constantturning of the lamps to and fro around the cellar.
"The inspector looked up from his search of the well, and nodded quietlyacross at me, with his sudden acknowledgment that our belief was now hisbelief, the smell in the cellar seemed to grow more dreadful, and to be,as it were, a menace--the material expression that some monstrous thingwas there with us, invisible.
"'I think--' began the inspector, and shone his light toward thestairway; and at this the constable's restraint went utterly, and he ranfor the stairs, making a queer sound in his throat.
"The landlord followed, at a quick walk, and then the inspector and I. Hewaited a single instant for me, and we went up together, treading on thesame steps, and with our lights held backward. At the top, I slammed andlocked the stair door, and wiped my forehead, and my hands were shaking.
"The inspector asked me to give his man a glass of whisky, and then hesent him on his beat. He stayed a short while with the landlord and me,and it was arranged that he would join us again the following night andwatch the Well with us from midnight until daylight. Then he left us,just as the dawn was coming in. The landlord and I locked up the house,and went over to his place for a sleep.
"In the afternoon, the landlord and I returned to the house, to makearrangements for the night. He was very quiet, and I felt he was to berelied on, now that he had been 'salted,' as it were, with his fright ofthe previous night.
"We opened all the doors and windows, and blew the house through verythoroughly; and in the meanwhile, we lit the lamps in the house, and tookthem into the cellars, where we set them all about, so as to have lighteverywhere. Then we carried down three chairs and a table, and set themin the cellar where the well was sunk. After that, we stretched thinpiano wire across the cellar, about nine inches from the floor, at such aheight that it should catch anything moving about in the dark.
"When this was done, I went through the house with the landlord, andsealed every window and door in the place, excepting only the front doorand the door at the top of the cellar stairs.
"Meanwhile, a local wire-smith was making something to my order; andwhen the landlord and I had finished tea at his house, we went down tosee how the smith was getting on. We found the thing complete. It lookedrather like a huge parrot's cage, without any bottom, of very heavy gagewire, and stood about seven feet high and was four feet in diameter.Fortunately, I remembered to have it made longitudinally in two halves,or else we should never have got it through the doorways and down thecellar stairs.
"I told the wire-smith to bring the cage up to
the house so he could fitthe two halves rigidly together. As we returned, I called in at anironmonger's, where I bought some thin hemp rope and an iron rack pulley,like those used in Lancashire for hauling up the ceiling clothes racks,which you will find in every cottage. I bought also a couple ofpitchforks.
"'We shan't want to touch it," I said to the landlord; and he nodded,rather white all at once.
"As soon as the cage arrived and had been fitted together in the cellar,I sent away the smith; and the landlord and I suspended it over the well,into which it fitted easily. After a lot of trouble, we managed to hangit so perfectly central from the rope over the iron pulley, that whenhoisted to the ceiling and dropped, it went every time plunk into thewell, like a candle-extinguisher. When we had it finally arranged, Ihoisted it up once more, to the ready position, and made the rope fast toa heavy wooden pillar, which stood in the middle of the cellar.
"By ten o'clock, I had everything arranged, with the two pitchforks andthe two police lanterns; also some whisky and sandwiches. Underneath thetable I had several buckets full of disinfectant.
"A little after eleven o'clock, there was a knock at the front door, andwhen I went, I found Inspector Johnstone had arrived, and brought withhim one of his plainclothes men. You will understand how pleased I wasto see there would be this addition to our watch; for he looked a tough,nerveless man, brainy and collected; and one I should have picked tohelp us with the horrible job I felt pretty sure we should have to dothat night.
"When the inspector and the detective had entered, I shut and locked thefront door; then, while the inspector held the light, I sealed the doorcarefully, with tape and wax. At the head of the cellar stairs, I shutand locked that door also, and sealed it in the same way.
"As we entered the cellar, I warned Johnstone and his man to be carefulnot to fall over the wires; and then, as I saw his surprise at myarrangements, I began to explain my ideas and intentions, to all of whichhe listened with strong approval. I was pleased to see also that thedetective was nodding his head, as I talked, in a way that showed heappreciated all my precautions.
"As he put his lantern down, the inspector picked up one of thepitchforks, and balanced it in his hand; he looked at me, and nodded.
"'The best thing,' he said. 'I only wish you'd got two more.'
"Then we all took our seats, the detective getting a washing stool fromthe corner of the cellar. From then, until a quarter to twelve, we talkedquietly, whilst we made a light supper of whisky and sandwiches; afterwhich, we cleared everything off the table, excepting the lanterns andthe pitchforks. One of the latter, I handed to the inspector; the other Itook myself, and then, having set my chair so as to be handy to the ropewhich lowered the cage into the well, I went 'round the cellar and putout every lamp.
"I groped my way to my chair, and arranged the pitchfork and the darklantern ready to my hand; after which I suggested that everyone shouldkeep an absolute silence throughout the watch. I asked, also, that nolantern should be turned on, until I gave the word.
"I put my watch on the table, where a faint glow from my lantern made meable to see the time. For an hour nothing happened, and everyone kept anabsolute silence, except for an occasional uneasy movement.
"About half-past one, however, I was conscious again of the sameextraordinary and peculiar nervousness, which I had felt on the previousnight. I put my hand out quickly, and eased the hitched rope from aroundthe pillar. The inspector seemed aware of the movement; for I saw thefaint light from his lantern, move a little, as if he had suddenly takenhold of it, in readiness.
"A minute later, I noticed there was a change in the color of the nightin the cellar, and it grew slowly violet tinted upon my eyes. I glancedto and fro, quickly, in the new darkness, and even as I looked, I wasconscious that the violet color deepened. In the direction of the well,but seeming to be at a great distance, there was, as it were, a nucleusto the change; and the nucleus came swiftly toward us, appearing to comefrom a great space, almost in a single moment. It came near, and I sawagain that it was a little naked Child, running, and seeming to be of theviolet night in which it ran.
"The Child came with a natural running movement, exactly as I describedit before; but in a silence so peculiarly intense, that it was as if itbrought the silence with it. About half-way between the well and thetable, the Child turned swiftly, and looked back at something invisibleto me; and suddenly it went down into a crouching attitude, and seemedto be hiding behind something that showed vaguely; but there wasnothing there, except the bare floor of the cellar; nothing, I mean, ofour world.
"I could hear the breathing of the three other men, with a wonderfuldistinctness; and also the tick of my watch upon the table seemed tosound as loud and as slow as the tick of an old grandfather's clock.Someway I knew that none of the others saw what I was seeing.
"Abruptly, the landlord, who was next to me, let out his breath with alittle hissing sound; I knew then that something was visible to him.There came a creak from the table, and I had a feeling that the inspectorwas leaning forward, looking at something that I could not see. Thelandlord reached out his hand through the darkness, and fumbled a momentto catch my arm:--
"'The Woman!' he whispered, close to my ear. 'Over by the well.'
"I stared hard in that direction; but saw nothing, except that the violetcolor of the cellar seemed a little duller just there.
"I looked back quickly to the vague place where the Child was hiding. Isaw it was peering back from its hiding place. Suddenly it rose and ranstraight for the middle of the table, which showed only as vague shadowhalf-way between my eyes and the unseen floor. As the Child ran under thetable, the steel prongs of my pitchfork glimmered with a violet,fluctuating light. A little way off, there showed high up in the gloom,the vaguely shining outline of the other fork, so I knew the inspectorhad it raised in his hand, ready. There was no doubt but that he sawsomething. On the table, the metal of the five lanterns shone with thesame strange glow; and about each lantern there was a little cloud ofabsolute blackness, where the phenomenon that is light to our naturaleyes, came through the fittings; and in this complete darkness, the metalof each lantern showed plain, as might a cat's-eye in a nest of blackcotton wool.
"Just beyond the table, the Child paused again, and stood, seeming tooscillate a little upon its feet, which gave the impression that it waslighter and vaguer than a thistle-down; and yet, in the same moment,another part of me seemed to know that it was to me, as something thatmight be beyond thick, invisible glass, and subject to conditions andforces that I was unable to comprehend.
"The Child was looking back again, and my gaze went the same way. Istared across the cellar, and saw the cage hanging clear in the violetlight, every wire and tie outlined with its glimmering; above it therewas a little space of gloom, and then the dull shining of the iron pulleywhich I had screwed into the ceiling.
"I stared in a bewildered way 'round the cellar; there were thin lines ofvague fire crossing the floor in all directions; and suddenly Iremembered the piano wire that the landlord and I had stretched. Butthere was nothing else to be seen, except that near the table there wereindistinct glimmerings of light, and at the far end the outline of a dullglowing revolver, evidently in the detective's pocket. I remember a sortof subconscious satisfaction, as I settled the point in a queer automaticfashion. On the table, near to me, there was a little shapelesscollection of the light; and this I knew, after an instant'sconsideration, to be the steel portions of my watch.
"I had looked several times at the Child, and 'round at the cellar,whilst I was decided these trifles; and had found it still in thatattitude of hiding from something. But now, suddenly, it ran clear awayinto the distance, and was nothing more than a slightly deeper colorednucleus far away in the strange colored atmosphere.
"The landlord gave out a queer little cry, and twisted over against me,as if to avoid something. From the inspector there came a sharp breathingsound, as if he had been suddenly drenched with cold water. Then su
ddenlythe violet color went out of the night, and I was conscious of thenearness of something monstrous and repugnant.
"There was a tense silence, and the blackness of the cellar seemedabsolute, with only the faint glow about each of the lanterns on thetable. Then, in the darkness and the silence, there came a faint tinkleof water from the well, as if something were rising noiselessly out ofit, and the water running back with a gentle tinkling. In the sameinstant, there came to me a sudden waft of the awful smell.
"I gave a sharp cry of warning to the inspector, and loosed the rope.There came instantly the sharp splash of the cage entering the water;and then, with a stiff, frightened movement, I opened the shutter ofmy lantern, and shone the light at the cage, shouting to the others todo the same.
"As my light struck the cage, I saw that about two feet of it projectedfrom the top of the well, and there was something protruding up out ofthe water, into the cage. I stared, with a feeling that I recognized thething; and then, as the other lanterns were opened, I saw that it was aleg of mutton. The thing was held by a brawny fist and arm, that rose outof the water. I stood utterly bewildered, watching to see what wascoming. In a moment there rose into view a great bearded face, that Ifelt for one quick instant was the face of a drowned man, long dead. Thenthe face opened at the mouth part, and spluttered and coughed. Anotherbig hand came into view, and wiped the water from the eyes, which blinkedrapidly, and then fixed themselves into a stare at the lights.
"From the detective there came a sudden shout:--
"'Captain Tobias!' he shouted, and the inspector echoed him; andinstantly burst into loud roars of laughter.
"The inspector and the detective ran across the cellar to the cage; and Ifollowed, still bewildered. The man in the cage was holding the leg ofmutton as far away from him, as possible, and holding his nose.
"'Lift thig dam trap, quig!' he shouted in a stifled voice; but theinspector and the detective simply doubled before him, and tried to holdtheir noses, whilst they laughed, and the light from their lanterns wentdancing all over the place.
"'Quig! quig!' said the man in the cage, still holding his nose, andtrying to speak plainly.
"Then Johnstone and the detective stopped laughing, and lifted the cage.The man in the well threw the leg across the cellar, and turned swiftlyto go down into the well; but the officers were too quick for him, andhad him out in a twinkling. Whilst they held him, dripping upon thefloor, the inspector jerked his thumb in the direction of the offendingleg, and the landlord, having harpooned it with one of the pitchforks,ran with it upstairs and so into the open air.
"Meanwhile, I had given the man from the well a stiff tot of whisky; forwhich he thanked me with a cheerful nod, and having emptied the glass ata draft, held his hand for the bottle, which he finished, as if it hadbeen so much water.
"As you will remember, it was a Captain Tobias who had been the previoustenant; and this was the very man, who had appeared from the well. Inthe course of the talk that followed, I learned the reason for CaptainTobias leaving the house; he had been wanted by the police forsmuggling. He had undergone imprisonment; and had been released only acouple of weeks earlier.
"He had returned to find new tenants in his old home. He had entered thehouse through the well, the walls of which were not continued to thebottom (this I will deal with later); and gone up by a little stairway inthe cellar wall, which opened at the top through a panel beside mymother's bedroom. This panel was opened, by revolving the left doorpostof the bedroom door, with the result that the bedroom door always becameunlatched, in the process of opening the panel.
"The captain complained, without any bitterness, that the panel hadwarped, and that each time he opened it, it made a cracking noise. Thishad been evidently what I mistook for raps. He would not give his reasonfor entering the house; but it was pretty obvious that he had hiddensomething, which he wanted to get. However, as he found it impossible toget into the house without the risk of being caught, he decided to try todrive us out, relying on the bad reputation of the house, and his ownartistic efforts as a ghost. I must say he succeeded. He intended then torent the house again, as before; and would then, of course have plenty oftime to get whatever he had hidden. The house suited him admirably; forthere was a passage--as he showed me afterward--connecting the dummy wellwith the crypt of the church beyond the garden wall; and these, in turn,were connected with certain caves in the cliffs, which went down to thebeach beyond the church.
"In the course of his talk, Captain Tobias offered to take the house offmy hands; and as this suited me perfectly, for I was about stalled withit, and the plan also suited the landlord, it was decided that no stepsshould be taken against him; and that the whole business should behushed up.
"I asked the captain whether there was really anything queer about thehouse; whether he had ever seen anything. He said yes, that he had twiceseen a Woman going about the house. We all looked at one another, whenthe captain said that. He told us she never bothered him, and that he hadonly seen her twice, and on each occasion it had followed a narrow escapefrom the Revenue people.
"Captain Tobias was an observant man; he had seen how I had placed themats against the doors; and after entering the rooms, and walking allabout them, so as to leave the foot-marks of an old pair of wetwoollen slippers everywhere, he had deliberately put the mats back ashe found them.
"The maggot which had dropped from his disgusting leg of mutton had beenan accident, and beyond even his horrible planning. He was hugelydelighted to learn how it had affected us.
"The moldy smell I had noticed was from the little closed stairway, whenthe captain opened the panel. The door slamming was also another of hiscontributions.
"I come now to the end of the captain's ghost play; and to the difficultyof trying to explain the other peculiar things. In the first place, itwas obvious there was something genuinely strange in the house; whichmade itself manifest as a Woman. Many different people had seen thisWoman, under differing circumstances, so it is impossible to put thething down to fancy; at the same time it must seem extraordinary that Ishould have lived two years in the house, and seen nothing; whilst thepoliceman saw the Woman, before he had been there twenty minutes; thelandlord, the detective, and the inspector all saw her.
"I can only surmise that _fear_ was in every case the key, as I mightsay, which opened the senses to the presence of the Woman. The policemanwas a highly-strung man, and when he became frightened, was able to seethe Woman. The same reasoning applies all 'round. _I_ saw nothing, untilI became really frightened; then I saw, not the Woman; but a Child,running away from Something or Someone. However, I will touch on thatlater. In short, until a very strong degree of fear was present, no onewas affected by the Force which made Itself evident, as a Woman. Mytheory explains why some tenants were never aware of anything strange inthe house, whilst others left immediately. The more sensitive they were,the less would be the degree of fear necessary to make them aware of theForce present in the house.
"The peculiar shining of all the metal objects in the cellar, had beenvisible only to me. The cause, naturally I do not know; neither do I knowwhy I, alone, was able to see the shining."
"The Child," I asked. "Can you explain that part at all? Why _you_ didn'tsee the Woman, and why _they_ didn't see the Child. Was it merely thesame Force, appearing differently to different people?"
"No," said Carnacki, "I can't explain that. But I am quite sure that theWoman and the Child were not only two complete and different entities;but even they were each not in quite the same planes of existence.
"To give you a root idea, however, it is held in the Sigsand MS. that achild '_still_born' is 'Snatyched back bye thee Haggs.' This is crude;but may yet contain an elemental truth. Yet, before I make this clearer,let me tell you a thought that has often been made. It may be thatphysical birth is but a secondary process; and that prior to thepossibility, the Mother Spirit searches for, until it finds, the smallElement--the primal Ego or child's soul. It may be that
a certainwaywardness would cause such to strive to evade capture by the MotherSpirit. It may have been such a thing as this, that I saw. I have alwaystried to think so; but it is impossible to ignore the sense of repulsionthat I felt when the unseen Woman went past me. This repulsion carriesforward the idea suggested in the Sigsand MS., that a stillborn child isthus, because its ego or spirit has been snatched back by the 'Hags.' Inother words, by certain of the Monstrosities of the Outer Circle. Thethought is inconceivably terrible, and probably the more so because it isso fragmentary. It leaves us with the conception of a child's soul adrifthalf-way between two lives, and running through Eternity from Somethingincredible and inconceivable (because not understood) to our senses.
"The thing is beyond further discussion; for it is futile to attempt todiscuss a thing, to any purpose, of which one has a knowledge sofragmentary as this. There is one thought, which is often mine. Perhapsthere is a Mother Spirit--"
"And the well?" said Arkwright. "How did the captain get in from theother side?"
"As I said before," answered Carnacki. "The side walls of the well didnot reach to the bottom; so that you had only to dip down into the water,and come up again on the other side of the wall, under the cellar floor,and so climb into the passage. Of course, the water was the same heighton both sides of the walls. Don't ask me who made the well entrance orthe little stairway; for I don't know. The house was very old, as I havetold you; and that sort of thing was useful in the old days."
"And the Child," I said, coming back to the thing which chieflyinterested me. "You would say that the birth must have occurred in thathouse; and in this way, one might suppose that the house to have become_en rapport_, if I can use the word in that way, with the Forces thatproduced the tragedy?"
"Yes," replied Carnacki. "This is, supposing we take the suggestion ofthe Sigsand MS., to account for the phenomenon."
"There may be other houses--" I began.
"There are," said Carnacki; and stood up.
"Out you go," he said, genially, using the recognized formula. And infive minutes we were on the Embankment, going thoughtfully to ourvarious homes.
No. 6--THE THING INVISIBLE
Carnacki had just returned to Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. I was aware of thisinteresting fact by reason of the curt and quaintly worded postcardwhich I was rereading, and by which I was requested to present myselfat his house not later than seven o'clock on that evening. Mr. Carnackihad, as I and the others of his strictly limited circle of friendsknew, been away in Kent for the past three weeks; but beyond that, wehad no knowledge. Carnacki was genially secretive and curt, and spokeonly when he was ready to speak. When this stage arrived, I and histhree other friends--Jessop, Arkright, and Taylor--would receive a cardor a wire, asking us to call. Not one of us ever willingly missed, forafter a thoroughly sensible little dinner Carnacki would snuggle downinto his big armchair, light his pipe, and wait whilst we arrangedourselves comfortably in our accustomed seats and nooks. Then he wouldbegin to talk.
Upon this particular night I was the first to arrive and foundCarnacki sitting, quietly smoking over a paper. He stood up, shook mefirmly by the hand, pointed to a chair, and sat down again, neverhaving uttered a word.
For my part, I said nothing either. I knew the man too well to bother himwith questions or the weather, and so took a seat and a cigarette.Presently the three others turned up and after that we spent acomfortable and busy hour at dinner.
Dinner over, Carnacki snugged himself down into his great chair, as Ihave said was his habit, filled his pipe and puffed for awhile, his gazedirected thoughtfully at the fire. The rest of us, if I may so expressit, made ourselves cozy, each after his own particular manner. A minuteor so later Carnacki began to speak, ignoring any preliminary remarks,and going straight to the subject of the story we knew he had to tell:
"I have just come back from Sir Alfred Jarnock's place at Burtontree, inSouth Kent," he began, without removing his gaze from the fire. "Mostextraordinary things have been happening down there lately and Mr. GeorgeJarnock, the eldest son, wired to ask me to run over and see whether Icould help to clear matters up a bit. I went.
"When I got there, I found that they have an old Chapel attached to thecastle which has had quite a distinguished reputation for being what ispopularly termed 'haunted.' They have been rather proud of this, as Imanaged to discover, until quite lately when something very disagreeableoccurred, which served to remind them that family ghosts are not alwayscontent, as I might say, to remain purely ornamental.
"It sounds almost laughable, I know, to hear of a long-respectedsupernatural phenomenon growing unexpectedly dangerous; and in this case,the tale of the haunting was considered as little more than an old myth,except after nightfall, when possibly it became more plausible seeming.
"But however this may be, there is no doubt at all but that what I mightterm the Haunting Essence which lived in the place, had become suddenlydangerous--deadly dangerous too, the old butler being nearly stabbed todeath one night in the Chapel, with a peculiar old dagger.
"It is, in fact, this dagger which is popularly supposed to 'haunt' theChapel. At least, there has been always a story handed down in the familythat this dagger would attack any enemy who should dare to venture intothe Chapel, after nightfall. But, of course, this had been taken withjust about the same amount of seriousness that people take most ghosttales, and that is not usually of a worryingly _real_ nature. I mean thatmost people never quite know how much or how little they believe ofmatters ab-human or ab-normal, and generally they never have anopportunity to learn. And, indeed, as you are all aware, I am as big askeptic concerning the truth of ghost tales as any man you are likely tomeet; only I am what I might term an unprejudiced skeptic. I am not givento either believing or disbelieving things 'on principle,' as I havefound many idiots prone to be, and what is more, some of them not ashamedto boast of the insane fact. I view all reported 'hauntings' as unprovenuntil I have examined into them, and I am bound to admit that ninety-ninecases in a hundred turn out to be sheer bosh and fancy. But thehundredth! Well, if it were not for the hundredth, I should have fewstories to tell you--eh?
"Of course, after the attack on the butler, it became evident that therewas at least 'something' in the old story concerning the dagger, and Ifound everyone in a half belief that the queer old weapon did reallystrike the butler, either by the aid of some inherent force, which Ifound them peculiarly unable to explain, or else in the hand of someinvisible thing or monster of the Outer World!
"From considerable experience, I knew that it was much more likely thatthe butler had been 'knifed' by some vicious and quite material human!
"Naturally, the first thing to do, was to test this probability of humanagency, and I set to work to make a pretty drastic examination of thepeople who knew most about the tragedy.
"The result of this examination, both pleased and surprised me, forit left me with very good reasons for belief that I had come upon oneof those extraordinary rare 'true manifestations' of the extrusion ofa Force from the Outside. In more popular phraseology--a genuine caseof haunting.
"These are the facts: On the previous Sunday evening but one, Sir AlfredJarnock's household had attended family service, as usual, in the Chapel.You see, the Rector goes over to officiate twice each Sunday, afterconcluding his duties at the public Church about three miles away.
"At the end of the service in the Chapel, Sir Alfred Jarnock, hisson Mr. George Jarnock, and the Rector had stood for a couple ofminutes, talking, whilst old Bellett the butler went 'round, puttingout the candles.
"Suddenly, the Rector remembered that he had left his small prayer bookon the Communion table in the morning; he turned, and asked the butler toget it for him before he blew out the chancel candles.
"Now I have particularly called your attention to this because it isimportant in that it provides witnesses in a most fortunate manner at anextraordinary moment. You see, the Rector's turning to speak to Belletthad naturally caused both Sir Alfred
Jarnock and his son to glance in thedirection of the butler, and it was at this identical instant and whilstall three were looking at him, that the old butler was stabbed--there,full in the candlelight, before their eyes.
"I took the opportunity to call early upon the Rector, after I hadquestioned Mr. George Jarnock, who replied to my queries in place of SirAlfred Jarnock, for the older man was in a nervous and shaken conditionas a result of the happening, and his son wished him to avoid dwellingupon the scene as much as possible.
"The Rector's version was clear and vivid, and he had evidently receivedthe astonishment of his life. He pictured to me the wholeaffair--Bellett, up at the chancel gate, going for the prayer book, andabsolutely alone; and then the _blow_, out of the Void, he described it;and the _force_ prodigious--the old man being driven headlong into thebody of the Chapel. Like the kick of a great horse, the Rector said, hisbenevolent old eyes bright and intense with the effort he had actuallywitnessed, in defiance of all that he had hitherto believed.
"When I left him, he went back to the writing which he had put aside whenI appeared. I feel sure that he was developing the first unorthodoxsermon that he had ever evolved. He was a dear old chap, and I shouldcertainly like to have heard it.
"The last man I visited was the butler. He was, of course, in afrightfully weak and shaken condition, but he could tell me nothing thatdid not point to there being a Power abroad in the Chapel. He told thesame tale, in every minute particle, that I had learned from the others.He had been just going up to put out the altar candles and fetch theRector's book, when something struck him an enormous blow high up on theleft breast and he was driven headlong into the aisle.
"Examination had shown that he had been stabbed by the dagger--of which Iwill tell you more in a moment--that hung always above the altar. Theweapon had entered, fortunately some inches above the heart, just underthe collarbone, which had been broken by the stupendous force of theblow, the dagger itself being driven clean through the body, and outthrough the scapula behind.
"The poor old fellow could not talk much, and I soon left him; but whathe had told me was sufficient to make it unmistakable that no livingperson had been within yards of him when he was attacked; and, as I knew,this fact was verified by three capable and responsible witnesses,independent of Bellett himself.
"The thing now was to search the Chapel, which is small and extremelyold. It is very massively built, and entered through only one door, whichleads out of the castle itself, and the key of which is kept by SirAlfred Jarnock, the butler having no duplicate.
"The shape of the Chapel is oblong, and the altar is railed off after theusual fashion. There are two tombs in the body of the place; but none inthe chancel, which is bare, except for the tall candlesticks, and thechancel rail, beyond which is the undraped altar of solid marble, uponwhich stand four small candlesticks, two at each end.
"Above the altar hangs the 'waeful dagger,' as I had learned it wasnamed. I fancy the term has been taken from an old vellum, whichdescribes the dagger and its supposed abnormal properties. I took thedagger down, and examined it minutely and with method. The blade is teninches long, two inches broad at the base, and tapering to a rounded butsharp point, rather peculiar. It is double-edged.
"The metal sheath is curious for having a crosspiece, which, taken withthe fact that the sheath itself is continued three parts up the hilt ofthe dagger (in a most inconvenient fashion), gives it the appearance of across. That this is not unintentional is shown by an engraving of theChrist crucified upon one side, whilst upon the other, in Latin, is theinscription: 'Vengeance is Mine, I will Repay.' A quaint and ratherterrible conjunction of ideas. Upon the blade of the dagger is graven inold English capitals: I WATCH. I STRIKE. On the butt of the hilt there iscarved deeply a Pentacle.
"This is a pretty accurate description of the peculiar old weapon thathas had the curious and uncomfortable reputation of being able (either ofits own accord or in the hand of something invisible) to strikemurderously any enemy of the Jarnock family who may chance to enter theChapel after nightfall. I may tell you here and now, that before I left,I had very good reason to put certain doubts behind me; for I tested thedeadliness of the thing myself.
"As you know, however, at this point of my investigation, I was still atthat stage where I considered the existence of a supernatural Forceunproven. In the meanwhile, I treated the Chapel drastically, soundingand scrutinizing the walls and floor, dealing with them almost foot byfoot, and particularly examining the two tombs.
"At the end of this search, I had in a ladder, and made a close survey ofthe groined roof. I passed three days in this fashion, and by the eveningof the third day I had proved to my entire satisfaction that there is noplace in the whole of that Chapel where any living being could havehidden, and also that the only way of ingress and egress to and from theChapel is through the doorway which leads into the castle, the door ofwhich was always kept locked, and the key kept by Sir Alfred Jarnockhimself, as I have told you. I mean, of course, that this doorway is theonly entrance practicable to material people.
"Yes, as you will see, even had I discovered some other opening, secretor otherwise, it would not have helped at all to explain the mystery ofthe incredible attack, in a normal fashion. For the butler, as you know,was struck in full sight of the Rector, Sir Jarnock and his son. And oldBellett himself knew that no living person had touched him.... _'Out ofthe Void,'_ the Rector had described the inhumanly brutal attack. 'Out ofthe Void!' A strange feeling it gives one--eh?
"And this is the thing that I had been called in to bottom!
"After considerable thought, I decided on a plan of action. I proposed toSir Alfred Jarnock that I should spend a night in the Chapel, and keep aconstant watch upon the dagger. But to this, the old knight--a little,wizened, nervous man--would not listen for a moment. He, at least, I feltassured had no doubt of the reality of some dangerous supernatural Forcea roam at night in the Chapel. He informed me that it had been his habitevery evening to lock the Chapel door, so that no one might foolishly orheedlessly run the risk of any peril that it might hold at night, andthat he could not allow me to attempt such a thing after what hadhappened to the butler.
"I could see that Sir Alfred Jarnock was very much in earnest, and wouldevidently have held himself to blame had he allowed me to make theexperiment and any harm come to me; so I said nothing in argument; andpresently, pleading the fatigue of his years and health, he saidgoodnight, and left me; having given me the impression of being a politebut rather superstitious, old gentleman.
"That night, however, whilst I was undressing, I saw how I might achievethe thing I wished, and be able to enter the Chapel after dark, withoutmaking Sir Alfred Jarnock nervous. On the morrow, when I borrowed thekey, I would take an impression, and have a duplicate made. Then, with myprivate key, I could do just what I liked.
"In the morning I carried out my idea. I borrowed the key, as I wanted totake a photograph of the chancel by daylight. When I had done this Ilocked up the Chapel and handed the key to Sir Alfred Jarnock, havingfirst taken an impression in soap. I had brought out the exposedplate--in its slide--with me; but the camera I had left exactly as itwas, as I wanted to take a second photograph of the chancel that night,from the same position.
"I took the dark slide into Burtontree, also the cake of soap with theimpress. The soap I left with the local ironmonger, who was something ofa locksmith and promised to let me have my duplicate, finished, if Iwould call in two hours. This I did, having in the meanwhile found out aphotographer where I developed the plate, and left it to dry, telling himI would call next day. At the end of the two hours I went for my key andfound it ready, much to my satisfaction. Then I returned to the castle.
"After dinner that evening, I played billiards with young Jarnock fora couple of hours. Then I had a cup of coffee and went off to myroom, telling him I was feeling awfully tired. He nodded and told mehe felt the same way. I was glad, for I wanted the house to settle assoon as possible.
<
br /> "I locked the door of my room, then from under the bed--where I hadhidden them earlier in the evening--I drew out several fine pieces ofplate armor, which I had removed from the armory. There was also a shirtof chain mail, with a sort of quilted hood of mail to go over the head.
"I buckled on the plate armor, and found it extraordinarilyuncomfortable, and over all I drew on the chain mail. I know nothingabout armor, but from what I have learned since, I must have put on partsof two suits. Anyway, I felt beastly, clamped and clumsy and unable tomove my arms and legs naturally. But I knew that the thing I was thinkingof doing called for some sort of protection for my body. Over the armor Ipulled on my dressing gown and shoved my revolver into one of the sidepockets--and my repeating flash-light into the other. My dark lantern Icarried in my hand.
"As soon as I was ready I went out into the passage and listened. I hadbeen some considerable time making my preparations and I found that nowthe big hall and staircase were in darkness and all the house seemedquiet. I stepped back and closed and locked my door. Then, very slowlyand silently I went downstairs to the hall and turned into the passagethat led to the Chapel.
"I reached the door and tried my key. It fitted perfectly and a momentlater I was in the Chapel, with the door locked behind me, and all aboutme the utter dree silence of the place, with just the faint showings ofthe outlines of the stained, leaded windows, making the darkness andlonesomeness almost the more apparent.
"Now it would be silly to say I did not feel queer. I felt very queerindeed. You just try, any of you, to imagine yourself standing there inthe dark silence and remembering not only the legend that was attached tothe place, but what had really happened to the old butler only a littlewhile gone, I can tell you, as I stood there, I could believe thatsomething invisible was coming toward me in the air of the Chapel. Yet, Ihad got to go through with the business, and I just took hold of mylittle bit of courage and set to work.
"First of all I switched on my light, then I began a careful tour of theplace; examining every corner and nook. I found nothing unusual. At thechancel gate I held up my lamp and flashed the light at the dagger. Ithung there, right enough, above the altar, but I remember thinking of theword 'demure,' as I looked at it. However, I pushed the thought away, forwhat I was doing needed no addition of uncomfortable thoughts.
"I completed the tour of the place, with a constantly growing awarenessof its utter chill and unkind desolation--an atmosphere of colddismalness seemed to be everywhere, and the quiet was abominable.
"At the conclusion of my search I walked across to where I had left mycamera focused upon the chancel. From the satchel that I had put beneaththe tripod I took out a dark slide and inserted it in the camera, drawingthe shutter. After that I uncapped the lens, pulled out my flashlightapparatus, and pressed the trigger. There was an intense, brilliantflash, that made the whole of the interior of the Chapel jump into sight,and disappear as quickly. Then, in the light from my lantern, I insertedthe shutter into the slide, and reversed the slide, so as to have a freshplate ready to expose at any time.
"After I had done this I shut off my lantern and sat down in one of thepews near to my camera. I cannot say what I expected to happen, but I hadan extraordinary feeling, almost a conviction, that something peculiar orhorrible would soon occur. It was, you know, as if I knew.
"An hour passed, of absolute silence. The time I knew by the far-off,faint chime of a clock that had been erected over the stables. I wasbeastly cold, for the whole place is without any kind of heating pipes orfurnace, as I had noticed during my search, so that the temperature wassufficiently uncomfortable to suit my frame of mind. I felt like a kindof human periwinkle encased in boilerplate and frozen with cold and funk.And, you know, somehow the dark about me seemed to press coldly againstmy face. I cannot say whether any of you have ever had the feeling, butif you have, you will know just how disgustingly unnerving it is. Andthen, all at once, I had a horrible sense that something was moving inthe place. It was not that I could hear anything but I had a kind ofintuitive knowledge that something had stirred in the darkness. Can youimagine how I felt?
"Suddenly my courage went. I put up my mailed arms over my face. Iwanted to protect it. I had got a sudden sickening feeling that somethingwas hovering over me in the dark. Talk about fright! I could have shoutedif I had not been afraid of the noise.... And then, abruptly, I heardsomething. Away up the aisle, there sounded a dull clang of metal, as itmight be the tread of a mailed heel upon the stone of the aisle. I satimmovable. I was fighting with all my strength to get back my courage. Icould not take my arms down from over my face, but I knew that I wasgetting hold of the gritty part of me again. And suddenly I made a mightyeffort and lowered my arms. I held my face up in the darkness. And, Itell you, I respect myself for the act, because I thought truly at thatmoment that I was going to die. But I think, just then, by the slowrevulsion of feeling which had assisted my effort, I was less sick, inthat instant, at the thought of having to die, than at the knowledge ofthe utter weak cowardice that had so unexpectedly shaken me all to bits,for a time.
"Do I make myself clear? You understand, I feel sure, that the sense ofrespect, which I spoke of, is not really unhealthy egotism; because, yousee, I am not blind to the state of mind which helped me. I mean that ifI had uncovered my face by a sheer effort of will, unhelped by anyrevulsion of feeling, I should have done a thing much more worthy ofmention. But, even as it was, there were elements in the act, worthy ofrespect. You follow me, don't you?
"And, you know, nothing touched me, after all! So that, in a littlewhile, I had got back a bit to my normal, and felt steady enough to gothrough with the business without any more funking.
"I daresay a couple of minutes passed, and then, away up near thechancel, there came again that clang, as though an armored foot steppedcautiously. By Jove! but it made me stiffen. And suddenly the thoughtcame that the sound I heard might be the rattle of the dagger above thealtar. It was not a particularly sensible notion, for the sound was fartoo heavy and resonant for such a cause. Yet, as can be easilyunderstood, my reason was bound to submit somewhat to my fancy at such atime. I remember now, that the idea of that insensate thing becominganimate, and attacking me, did not occur to me with any sense ofpossibility or reality. I thought rather, in a vague way, of someinvisible monster of outer space fumbling at the dagger. I rememberedthe old Rector's description of the attack on the butler.... _of thevoid_. And he had described the stupendous force of the blow as being'like the kick of a great horse.' You can see how uncomfortably mythoughts were running.
"I felt 'round swiftly and cautiously for my lantern. I found it close tome, on the pew seat, and with a sudden, jerky movement, I switched on thelight. I flashed it up the aisle, to and fro across the chancel, but Icould see nothing to frighten me. I turned quickly, and sent the jet oflight darting across and across the rear end of the Chapel; then on eachside of me, before and behind, up at the roof and down at the marblefloor, but nowhere was there any visible thing to put me in fear, not athing that need have set my flesh thrilling; just the quiet Chapel, cold,and eternally silent. You know the feeling.
"I had been standing, whilst I sent the light about the Chapel, but now Ipulled out my revolver, and then, with a tremendous effort of will,switched off the light, and sat down again in the darkness, to continuemy constant watch.
"It seemed to me that quite half an hour, or even more, must have passed,after this, during which no sound had broken the intense stillness. I hadgrown less nervously tense, for the flashing of the light 'round theplace had made me feel less out of all bounds of the normal--it hadgiven me something of that unreasoned sense of safety that a nervouschild obtains at night, by covering its head up with the bedclothes. Thisjust about illustrates the completely human illogicalness of the workingsof my feelings; for, as you know, whatever Creature, Thing, or Being itwas that had made that extraordinary and horrible attack on the oldbutler, it had certainly not been visible.
"And so you
must picture me sitting there in the dark; clumsy with armor,and with my revolver in one hand, and nursing my lantern, ready, with theother. And then it was, after this little time of partial relief fromintense nervousness, that there came a fresh strain on me; for somewherein the utter quiet of the Chapel, I thought I heard something. Ilistened, tense and rigid, my heart booming just a little in my ears fora moment; then I thought I heard it again. I felt sure that something hadmoved at the top of the aisle. I strained in the darkness, to hark; andmy eyes showed me blackness within blackness, wherever I glanced, so thatI took no heed of what they told me; for even if I looked at the dim loomof the stained window at the top of the chancel, my sight gave me theshapes of vague shadows passing noiseless and ghostly across, constantly.There was a time of almost peculiar silence, horrible to me, as I feltjust then. And suddenly I seemed to hear a sound again, nearer to me, andrepeated, infinitely stealthy. It was as if a vast, soft tread werecoming slowly down the aisle.
"Can you imagine how I felt? I do not think you can. I did not move, anymore than the stone effigies on the two tombs; but sat there,_stiffened_. I fancied now, that I heard the tread all about the Chapel.And then, you know, I was just as sure in a moment that I could not hearit--that I had never heard it.
"Some particularly long minutes passed, about this time; but I think mynerves must have quieted a bit; for I remember being sufficiently awareof my feelings, to realize that the muscles of my shoulders _ached_, withthe way that they must have been contracted, as I sat there, hunchingmyself, rigid. Mind you, I was still in a disgusting funk; but what Imight call the 'imminent sense of danger' seemed to have eased fromaround me; at any rate, I felt, in some curious fashion, that there was arespite--a temporary cessation of malignity from about me. It isimpossible to word my feelings more clearly to you, for I cannot see themmore clearly than this, myself.
"Yet, you must not picture me as sitting there, free from strain; for thenerve tension was so great that my heart action was a little out ofnormal control, the blood beat making a dull booming at times in my ears,with the result that I had the sensation that I could not hear acutely.This is a simply beastly feeling, especially under such circumstances.
"I was sitting like this, listening, as I might say with body and soul,when suddenly I got that hideous conviction again that something wasmoving in the air of the place. The feeling seemed to stiffen me, as Isat, and my head appeared to tighten, as if all the scalp had grown_tense_. This was so real, that I suffered an actual pain, most peculiarand at the same time intense; the whole head pained. I had a fiercedesire to cover my face again with my mailed arms, but I fought it off.If I had given way then to that, I should simply have bunked straight outof the place. I sat and sweated coldly (that's the bald truth), with the'creep' busy at my spine....
"And then, abruptly, once more I thought I heard the sound of that huge,soft tread on the aisle, and this time closer to me. There was an awfullittle silence, during which I had the feeling that something enormouswas bending over toward me, from the aisle.... And then, through thebooming of the blood in my ears, there came a slight sound from theplace where my camera stood--a disagreeable sort of slithering sound, andthen a sharp tap. I had the lantern ready in my left hand, and now Isnapped it on, desperately, and shone it straight above me, for I had aconviction that there was something there. But I saw nothing. ImmediatelyI flashed the light at the camera, and along the aisle, but again therewas nothing visible. I wheeled 'round, shooting the beam of light in agreat circle about the place; to and fro I shone it, jerking it here andthere, but it showed me nothing.
"I had stood up the instant that I had seen that there was nothing insight over me, and now I determined to visit the chancel, and see whetherthe dagger had been touched. I stepped out of the pew into the aisle, andhere I came to an abrupt pause, for an almost invincible, sick repugnancewas fighting me back from the upper part of the Chapel. A constant, queerprickling went up and down my spine, and a dull ache took me in the smallof the back, as I fought with myself to conquer this sudden new feelingof terror and horror. I tell you, that no one who has not been throughthese kinds of experiences, has any idea of the sheer, actual physicalpain attendant upon, and resulting from, the intense nerve strain thatghostly fright sets up in the human system. I stood there feelingpositively ill. But I got myself in hand, as it were, in about half aminute, and then I went, walking, I expect, as jerky as a mechanical tinman, and switching the light from side to side, before and behind, andover my head continually. And the hand that held my revolver sweated somuch, that the thing fairly slipped in my fist. Does not sound veryheroic, does it?
"I passed through the short chancel, and reached the step that led up tothe small gate in the chancel rail. I threw the beam from my lanternupon the dagger. Yes, I thought, it's all right. Abruptly, it seemed tome that there was something wanting, and I leaned forward over thechancel gate to peer, holding the light high. My suspicion was hideouslycorrect. _The dagger had gone._ Only the cross-shaped sheath hung thereabove the altar.
"In a sudden, frightened flash of imagination, I pictured the thingadrift in the Chapel, moving here and there, as though of its ownvolition; for whatever Force wielded it, was certainly beyondvisibility. I turned my head stiffly over to the left, glancingfrightenedly behind me, and flashing the light to help my eyes. In thesame instant I was struck a tremendous blow over the left breast, andhurled backward from the chancel rail, into the aisle, my armor clangingloudly in the horrible silence. I landed on my back, and slithered alongon the polished marble. My shoulder struck the corner of a pew front,and brought me up, half stunned. I scrambled to my feet, horribly sickand shaken; but the fear that was on me, making little of that at themoment. I was minus both revolver and lantern, and utterly bewildered asto just where I was standing. I bowed my head, and made a scrambling runin the complete darkness and dashed into a pew. I jumped back,staggering, got my bearings a little, and raced down the center of theaisle, putting my mailed arms over my face. I plunged into my camera,hurling it among the pews. I crashed into the font, and reeled back.Then I was at the exit. I fumbled madly in my dressing gown pocket forthe key. I found it and scraped at the door, feverishly, for thekeyhole. I found the keyhole, turned the key, burst the door open, andwas into the passage. I slammed the door and leant hard against it,gasping, whilst I felt crazily again for the keyhole, this time to lockthe door upon what was in the Chapel. I succeeded, and began to feel myway stupidly along the wall of the corridor. Presently I had come to thebig hall, and so in a little to my room.
"In my room, I sat for a while, until I had steadied down somethingto the normal. After a time I commenced to strip off the armor. I sawthen that both the chain mail and the plate armor had been piercedover the breast. And, suddenly, it came home to me that the Thing hadstruck for my heart.
"Stripping rapidly, I found that the skin of the breast over the hearthad just been cut sufficiently to allow a little blood to stain my shirt,nothing more. Only, the whole breast was badly bruised and intenselypainful. You can imagine what would have happened if I had not worn thearmor. In any case, it is a marvel that I was not knocked senseless.
"I did not go to bed at all that night, but sat upon the edge, thinking,and waiting for the dawn; for I had to remove my litter before Sir AlfredJarnock should enter, if I were to hide from him the fact that I hadmanaged a duplicate key.
"So soon as the pale light of the morning had strengthened sufficientlyto show me the various details of my room, I made my way quietly down tothe Chapel. Very silently, and with tense nerves, I opened the door. Thechill light of the dawn made distinct the whole place--everything seeminginstinct with a ghostly, unearthly quiet. Can you get the feeling? Iwaited several minutes at the door, allowing the morning to grow, andlikewise my courage, I suppose. Presently the rising sun threw an oddbeam right in through the big, East window, making colored sunshine allthe length of the Chapel. And then, with a tremendous effort, I forcedmyself to enter.
"I
went up the aisle to where I had overthrown my camera in the darkness.The legs of the tripod were sticking up from the interior of a pew, and Iexpected to find the machine smashed to pieces; yet, beyond that theground glass was broken, there was no real damage done.
"I replaced the camera in the position from which I had taken theprevious photography; but the slide containing the plate I had exposed byflashlight I removed and put into one of my side pockets, regretting thatI had not taken a second flash picture at the instant when I heard thosestrange sounds up in the chancel.
"Having tidied my photographic apparatus, I went to the chancel torecover my lantern and revolver, which had both--as you know--beenknocked from my hands when I was stabbed. I found the lantern lying,hopelessly bent, with smashed lens, just under the pulpit. My revolver Imust have held until my shoulder struck the pew, for it was lying therein the aisle, just about where I believe I cannoned into the pew corner.It was quite undamaged.
"Having secured these two articles, I walked up to the chancel rail tosee whether the dagger had returned, or been returned, to its sheathabove the altar. Before, however, I reached the chancel rail, I had aslight shock; for there on the floor of the chancel, about a yard awayfrom where I had been struck, lay the dagger, quiet and demure upon thepolished marble pavement. I wonder whether you will, any of you,understand the nervousness that took me at the sight of the thing. With asudden, unreasoned action, I jumped forward and put my foot on it, tohold it there. Can you understand? Do you? And, you know, I could notstoop down and pick it up with my hands for quite a minute, I shouldthink. Afterward, when I had done so, however, and handled it a little,this feeling passed away and my Reason (and also, I expect, the daylight)made me feel that I had been a little bit of an ass. Quite natural,though, I assure you! Yet it was a new kind of fear to me. I'm taking nonotice of the cheap joke about the ass! I am talking about thecuriousness of learning in that moment a new shade or quality of fearthat had hitherto been outside of my knowledge or imagination. Does itinterest you?
"I examined the dagger, minutely, turning it over and over in my handsand never--as I suddenly discovered--holding it loosely. It was as if Iwere subconsciously surprised that it lay quiet in my hands. Yet eventhis feeling passed, largely, after a short while. The curious weaponshowed no signs of the blow, except that the dull color--of the blade wasslightly brighter on the rounded point that had cut through the armor.
"Presently, when I had made an end of staring at the dagger, I went upthe chancel step and in through the little gate. Then, kneeling upon thealtar, I replaced the dagger in its sheath, and came outside of the railagain, closing the gate after me and feeling awarely uncomfortablebecause the horrible old weapon was back again in its accustomed place. Isuppose, without analyzing my feelings very deeply, I had an unreasonedand only half-conscious belief that there was a greater probability ofdanger when the dagger hung in its five century resting place than whenit was out of it! Yet, somehow I don't think this is a very goodexplanation, when I remember the _demure_ look the thing seemed to havewhen I saw it lying on the floor of the chancel. Only I know this, thatwhen I had replaced the dagger I had quite a touch of nerves and Istopped only to pick up my lantern from where I had placed it whilst Iexamined the weapon, after which I went down the quiet aisle at a prettyquick walk, and so got out of the place.
"That the nerve tension had been considerable, I realized, when I hadlocked the door behind me. I felt no inclination now to think of old SirAlfred as a hypochondriac because he had taken such hyperseemingprecautions regarding the Chapel. I had a sudden wonder as to whether hemight not have some knowledge of a long prior tragedy in which thedagger had been concerned.
"I returned to my room, washed, shaved and dressed, after which I readawhile. Then I went downstairs and got the acting butler to give me somesandwiches and a cup of coffee.
"Half an hour later I was heading for Burtontree, as hard as I couldwalk; for a sudden idea had come to me, which I was anxious to test. Ireached the town a little before eight thirty, and found the localphotographer with his shutters still up. I did not wait, but knockeduntil he appeared with his coat off, evidently in the act of dealing withhis breakfast. In a few words I made clear that I wanted the use of hisdark room immediately, and this he at once placed at my disposal.
"I had brought with me the slide which contained the plate that I hadused with the flashlight, and as soon as I was ready I set to work todevelop. Yet, it was not the plate which I had exposed, that I first putinto the solution, but the second plate, which had been ready in thecamera during all the time of my waiting in the darkness. You see, thelens had been uncapped all that while, so that the whole chancel hadbeen, as it were, under observation.
"You all know something of my experiments in 'Lightless Photography,'that is, appreciating light. It was X-ray work that started me in thatdirection. Yet, you must understand, though I was attempting to developthis 'unexposed' plate, I had no definite idea of results--nothing morethan a vague hope that it might show me something.
"Yet, because of the possibilities, it was with the most intense andabsorbing interest that I watched the plate under the action of thedeveloper. Presently I saw a faint smudge of black appear in the upperpart, and after that others, indistinct and wavering of outline. I heldthe negative up to the light. The marks were rather small, and werealmost entirely confined to one end of the plate, but as I have said,lacked definiteness. Yet, such as they were, they were sufficient to makeme very excited and I shoved the thing quickly back into the solution.
"For some minutes further I watched it, lifting it out once or twice tomake a more exact scrutiny, but could not imagine what the markings mightrepresent, until suddenly it occurred to me that in one of two placesthey certainly had shapes suggestive of a cross hilted dagger. Yet, theshapes were sufficiently indefinite to make me careful not to let myselfbe overimpressed by the uncomfortable resemblance, though I must confess,the very thought was sufficient to set some odd thrills adrift in me.
"I carried development a little further, then put the negative into thehypo, and commenced work upon the other plate. This came up nicely, andvery soon I had a really decent negative that appeared similar in everyrespect (except for the difference of lighting) to the negative I hadtaken during the previous day. I fixed the plate, then having washed bothit and the 'unexposed' one for a few minutes under the tap, I put theminto methylated spirits for fifteen minutes, after which I carried theminto the photographer's kitchen and dried them in the oven.
"Whilst the two plates were drying the photographer and I made anenlargement from the negative I had taken by daylight. Then we did thesame with the two that I had just developed, washing them as quickly aspossible, for I was not troubling about the permanency of the prints, anddrying them with spirits.
"When this was done I took them to the window and made a thoroughexamination, commencing with the one that appeared to show shadowydaggers in several places. Yet, though it was now enlarged, I was stillunable to feel convinced that the marks truly represented anythingabnormal; and because of this, I put it on one side, determined not tolet my imagination play too large a part in constructing weapons out ofthe indefinite outlines.
"I took up the two other enlargements, both of the chancel, as you willremember, and commenced to compare them. For some minutes I examined themwithout being able to distinguish any difference in the scene theyportrayed, and then abruptly, I saw something in which they varied. Inthe second enlargement--the one made from the flashlight negative--thedagger was not in its sheath. Yet, I had felt sure it was there but a fewminutes before I took the photograph.
"After this discovery I began to compare the two enlargements in a verydifferent manner from my previous scrutiny. I borrowed a pair of calipersfrom the photographer and with these I carried out a most methodical andexact comparison of the details shown in the two photographs.
"Suddenly I came upon something that set me all tingling with excitement.I threw the calipers down, pai
d the photographer, and walked out throughthe shop into the street. The three enlargements I took with me, makingthem into a roll as I went. At the corner of the street I had the luck toget a cab and was soon back at the castle.
"I hurried up to my room and put the photographs away; then I went down tosee whether I could find Sir Alfred Jarnock; but Mr. George Jarnock, whomet me, told me that his father was too unwell to rise and would preferthat no one entered the Chapel unless he were about.
"Young Jarnock made a half apologetic excuse for his father; remarkingthat Sir Alfred Jarnock was perhaps inclined to be a little over careful;but that, considering what had happened, we must agree that the need forhis carefulness had been justified. He added, also, that even before thehorrible attack on the butler his father had been just as particular,always keeping the key and never allowing the door to be unlocked exceptwhen the place was in use for Divine Service, and for an hour eachforenoon when the cleaners were in.
"To all this I nodded understandingly; but when, presently, the youngman left me I took my duplicate key and made for the door of the Chapel.I went in and locked it behind me, after which I carried out someintensely interesting and rather weird experiments. These provedsuccessful to such an extent that I came out of the place in a perfectfever of excitement. I inquired for Mr. George Jarnock and was told thathe was in the morning room.
"'Come along,' I said, when I had found him. 'Please give me a lift. I'vesomething exceedingly strange to show you.'
"He was palpably very much puzzled, but came quickly. As we strode alonghe asked me a score of questions, to all of which I just shook my head,asking him to wait a little.
"I led the way to the Armory. Here I suggested that he should take oneside of a dummy, dressed in half plate armor, whilst I took the other.He nodded, though obviously vastly bewildered, and together we carriedthe thing to the Chapel door. When he saw me take out my key and openthe way for us he appeared even more astonished, but held himself in,evidently waiting for me to explain. We entered the Chapel and I lockedthe door behind us, after which we carted the armored dummy up the aisleto the gate of the chancel rail where we put it down upon its round,wooden stand.
"'Stand back!' I shouted suddenly as young Jarnock made a movement toopen the gate. 'My God, man! you mustn't do that!'
"Do what?" he asked, half-startled and half-irritated by my wordsand manner.
"One minute," I said. "Just stand to the side a moment, and watch."
He stepped to the left whilst I took the dummy in my arms and turned itto face the altar, so that it stood close to the gate. Then, standingwell away on the right side, I pressed the back of the thing so that itleant forward a little upon the gate, which flew open. In the sameinstant, the dummy was struck a tremendous blow that hurled it into theaisle, the armor rattling and clanging upon the polished marble floor.
"Good God!" shouted young Jarnock, and ran back from the chancel rail,his face very white.
"Come and look at the thing," I said, and led the way to where the dummylay, its armored upper limbs all splayed adrift in queer contortions. Istooped over it and pointed. There, driven right through the thick steelbreastplate, was the 'waeful dagger.'
"Good God!" said young Jarnock again. "Good God! It's the dagger! Thething's been stabbed, same as Bellett!"
"Yes," I replied, and saw him glance swiftly toward the entrance ofthe Chapel. But I will do him the justice to say that he neverbudged an inch.
"Come and see how it was done," I said, and led the way back to thechancel rail. From the wall to the left of the altar I took down a long,curiously ornamented, iron instrument, not unlike a short spear. Thesharp end of this I inserted in a hole in the left-hand gatepost of thechancel gateway. I lifted hard, and a section of the post, from the floorupward, bent inward toward the altar, as though hinged at the bottom.Down it went, leaving the remaining part of the post standing. As I bentthe movable portion lower there came a quick click and a section of thefloor slid to one side, showing a long, shallow cavity, sufficient toenclose the post. I put my weight to the lever and hove the post downinto the niche. Immediately there was a sharp clang, as some catchsnicked in, and held it against the powerful operating spring.
I went over now to the dummy, and after a few minute's work managed towrench the dagger loose out of the armor. I brought the old weapon andplaced its hilt in a hole near the top of the post where it fittedloosely, the point upward. After that I went again to the lever and gaveanother strong heave, and the post descended about a foot, to the bottomof the cavity, catching there with another clang. I withdrew the leverand the narrow strip of floor slid back, covering post and dagger, andlooking no different from the surrounding surface.
Then I shut the chancel gate, and we both stood well to one side. Itook the spear-like lever, and gave the gate a little push, so that itopened. Instantly there was a loud thud, and something sang through theair, striking the bottom wall of the Chapel. It was the dagger. Ishowed Jarnock then that the other half of the post had sprung backinto place, making the whole post as thick as the one upon theright-hand side of the gate.
"There!" I said, turning to the young man and tapping the divided post."There's the 'invisible' thing that used the dagger, but who the deuce isthe person who sets the trap?" I looked at him keenly as I spoke.
"My father is the only one who has a key," he said. "So it's practicallyimpossible for anyone to get in and meddle."
I looked at him again, but it was obvious that he had not yet reached outto any conclusion.
"See here, Mr. Jarnock," I said, perhaps rather curter than I should havedone, considering what I had to say. "Are you quite sure that Sir Alfredis quite balanced--mentally?"
"He looked at me, half frightenedly and flushing a little. I realizedthen how badly I put it.
"'I--I don't know,' he replied, after a slight pause and was then silent,except for one or two incoherent half remarks.
"'Tell the truth,' I said. 'Haven't you suspected something, now andagain? You needn't be afraid to tell me.'
"'Well,' he answered slowly, 'I'll admit I've thought Father a little--alittle strange, perhaps, at times. But I've always tried to think I wasmistaken. I've always hoped no one else would see it. You see, I'm veryfond of the old guvnor.'
"I nodded.
"'Quite right, too,' I said. 'There's not the least need to make any kindof scandal about this. We must do something, though, but in a quiet way.No fuss, you know. I should go and have a chat with your father, and tellhim we've found out about this thing.' I touched the divided post.
"Young Jarnock seemed very grateful for my advice and after shaking myhand pretty hard, took my key, and let himself out of the Chapel. He cameback in about an hour, looking rather upset. He told me that myconclusions were perfectly correct. It was Sir Alfred Jarnock who had setthe trap, both on the night that the butler was nearly killed, and on thepast night. Indeed, it seemed that the old gentleman had set it everynight for many years. He had learnt of its existence from an oldmanuscript book in the Castle library. It had been planned and used in anearlier age as a protection for the gold vessels of the ritual, whichwere, it seemed, kept in a hidden recess at the back of the altar.
"This recess Sir Alfred Jarnock had utilized, secretly, to store hiswife's jewelry. She had died some twelve years back, and the young mantold me that his father had never seemed quite himself since.
"I mentioned to young Jarnock how puzzled I was that the trap had beenset _before_ the service, on the night that the butler was struck; for,if I understood him aright, his father had been in the habit of settingthe trap late every night and unsetting it each morning before anyoneentered the Chapel. He replied that his father, in a fit of temporaryforgetfulness (natural enough in his neurotic condition), must have setit too early and hence what had so nearly proved a tragedy.
"That is about all there is to tell. The old man is not (so far as Icould learn), really insane in the popularly accepted sense of the word.He is extremely neurotic and
has developed into a hypochondriac, thewhole condition probably brought about by the shock and sorrow resultanton the death of his wife, leading to years of sad broodings and toovermuch of his own company and thoughts. Indeed, young Jarnock told methat his father would sometimes pray for hours together, alone in theChapel." Carnacki made an end of speaking and leant forward for a spill.
"But you've never told us just _how_ you discovered the secret of thedivided post and all that," I said, speaking for the four of us.
"Oh, that!" replied Carnacki, puffing vigorously at his pipe. "Ifound--on comparing the--photos, that the one--taken in the--daytime,showed a thicker left-hand gatepost, than the one taken at night by theflashlight. That put me on to the track. I saw at once that there mightbe some mechanical dodge at the back of the whole queer business andnothing at all of an abnormal nature. I examined the post and the restwas simple enough, you know.
"By the way," he continued, rising and going to the mantelpiece, "you maybe interested to have a look at the so-called 'waeful dagger.' YoungJarnock was kind enough to present it to me, as a little memento of myadventure."
He handed it 'round to us and whilst we examined it, stood silent beforethe fire, puffing meditatively at his pipe.
"Jarnock and I made the trap so that it won't work," he remarked after afew moments. "I've got the dagger, as you see, and old Bellett's gettingabout again, so that the whole business can be hushed up, decently. Allthe same I fancy the Chapel will never lose its reputation as a dangerousplace. Should be pretty safe now to keep valuables in."
"There's two things you haven't explained yet," I said. "What do youthink caused the two clangey sounds when you were in the Chapel in thedark? And do you believe the soft tready sounds were real, or only afancy, with your being so worked up and tense?"
"Don't know for certain about the clangs," replied Carnacki.
"I've puzzled quite a bit about them. I can only think that the springwhich worked the post must have 'given' a trifle, slipped you know, inthe catch. If it did, under such a tension, it would make a bit of aringing noise. And a little sound goes a long way in the middle of thenight when you're thinking of 'ghostesses.' You can understand that--eh?"
"Yes," I agreed. "And the other sounds?"
"Well, the same thing--I mean the extraordinary quietness--may help toexplain these a bit. They may have been some usual enough sound thatwould never have been noticed under ordinary conditions, or they may havebeen only fancy. It is just impossible to say. They were disgustinglyreal to me. As for the slithery noise, I am pretty sure that one of thetripod legs of my camera must have slipped a few inches: if it did so, itmay easily have jolted the lens cap off the baseboard, which wouldaccount for that queer little tap which I heard directly after."
"How do you account for the dagger being in its place above the altarwhen you first examined it that night?" I asked. "How could it be there,when at that very moment it was set in the trap?"
"That was my mistake," replied Carnacki. "The dagger could not possiblyhave been in its sheath at the time, though I thought it was. You see,the curious cross-hilted sheath gave the appearance of the completeweapon, as you can understand. The hilt of the dagger protrudes verylittle above the continued portion of the sheath--a most inconvenientarrangement for drawing quickly!" He nodded sagely at the lot of us andyawned, then glanced at the clock.
"Out you go!" he said, in friendly fashion, using the recognized formula."I want a sleep."
We rose, shook him by the hand, and went out presently into the night andthe quiet of the Embankment, and so to our homes.
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