CHAPTER XXVI
STATEMENT OF DR. DAMAR GREEFE (CONTINUED)
As I walked along through the deserted native streets, for the hourwas late, I reviewed mentally the circumstances of that affair,already several months old, to which I have referred. Since it provedto have a very important bearing upon my own life and unfortunatelythe lives of many others, I will briefly recount it here.
Sir Burnham and Lady Coverly, having arrived at Port Said, wereproceeding by rail to Cairo when an accident farther up the linenecessitated their breaking their journey at Zagazig.
Now, for a time in the spring of the previous year, I had devoted muchlabor to an inquiry in this place, which stands of course roughly uponthe site of the ancient Egyptian city of _Bubastis_. In those myths,or so-called myths, of the Ancient Egyptian religion which representedthe various attributes of man in the guises of animals, I hadperceived a nucleus of wisdom pointing to the possibility that the lawwhich I had so laboriously established might have been known to theearly Egyptian priesthood. Indeed I was partly induced to inquire intothe myths of Bast, the cat-headed goddess to whom of old this town wasdedicated, by the following two things: first, a chance reference inthe pages of Herodotus; and, second, a persistent superstition thatduring a certain season of the year, _psycho-hybrids_ occurred in thistown.
By dint of close research I discovered that the date favored by theinhabitants of Zagazig, as that upon which such creatures were bornthere, corresponded very closely with the Sacred Sothic month,formerly sacred to Bast, the titulary goddess of the place,corresponded in short with the ancient Feast of Bast.
My inquiries at the time, however, proved futile, and beyond the factthat the town was remarkable for a singular number of semi-wild cats,I discovered nothing to support my theory. However, as I have alreadystated, a native acquaintance there, a very learned Moslem, to whom Ihad imparted during my residence some idea of the nature of mystudies, sent me a long communication containing particulars of theevent which had befallen Lady Coverly during her one-night's sojournin Zagazig.
Briefly, she had learned from a native attached to the one possiblehotel which the town boasted, of the tradition associated with theplace. Some other member of the party (for quite a large company hadbeen detained in Zagazig by the mishap) unwisely pointed out to herthat the favored date was that upon which they had arrived in thetown.
Nothing might have resulted from this; but by a strange fatality (orbecause of the operation of some unsuspected law understood by theancients but misapprehended to-day) the matter was sealed in a veryextraordinary fashion.
Lady Coverly's room opened upon a balcony, and during the night one ofthose huge cats of the kind which I had observed myself to infest theneighborhood, gained access to this balcony. Since the appearance ofthe creature produced so singular and disastrous an effect, it mustcertainly have been an unusually large specimen of its kind. I may addthat according to my Moslem friend--who, although a man of greatculture, was soaked in the traditions of his religion--it was noneother than a member of the _ginn_, an _efreet_ or evil spirit, and nota cat of flesh and blood which appeared to Lady Coverly. I leave eachto choose his own explanation, but let it suffice that Lady Coverlywas awakened some time during the night by the appearance at herbedside of this gaunt and hungry-eyed creature. The result was anillness of a kind very dangerous to one in her delicate state ofhealth.
Reflecting, then, upon these matters, I presently came to the officialresidence of Sir Burnham Coverly, and my expectations regarding thenature of the case were realized....[1]
[Footnote 1: Part of the statement which immediately followed, beingof a purely technical nature, is omitted here.]
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My house in the narrow street so near to the Bab-es-Zuwela and theminarets of Muayyad was admirably adapted for my new purpose. For herein the very heart of native Cairo, with my great house (which had beenbuilt, as are all Oriental houses, to guard secrets) I was as safefrom unwelcome intrusion as one upon a desert island, whilst at thesame time I was denied none of the conveniences and facilities ofcivilization.
Lady Coverly, then, never set eyes upon her firstborn, and SirBurnham, who did, readily reconciled himself to the loss of such adaughter. The announcement which should have appeared joyfully underthe press-heading "Births" was unobtrusively inserted under "Deaths,"and Sir Burnham being fortunately far from the haunts of the socialparagraph writers, this unfortunate event aroused comparatively littlecomment in the English journals; beyond one or two formal condolencesit passed unnoticed.
The fever of research at last had led me into my first definite crimeagainst society--if so it can be called. I had rescued alive the mostperfect example of a _psycho-hybrid_ with which throughout myextensive special inquiries, I had ever come in contact. Lady Coverlynever knew her unnatural child, and Sir Burnham--as well as the oldfamily nurse who had accompanied them out from England--never doubtedthat it had died in the hour of birth.
I set to work with enthusiasm upon my last and greatest experiment.
To a half-caste woman upon whom I knew I could rely--for she wasdeeply indebted to me--I entrusted the fostering of the infant hybrid.I personally supervised every detail of the secret nursery, Cassimprocuring for me everything necessary for the rearing of this delicateand fragile creature.
Over the early years of her life I will hasten. On three occasions Idespaired of preserving her existence, which, from the beginning, hadhung by a thread. The first crisis came when she was only four monthsold, the second on the occasion of her fourth birthday, and the third(most serious of all) when she was eleven, at which age she had becomea woman in the Oriental sense and was physically and mentallycomparable with an ordinary European girl of nineteen or twenty.
With what scientific ardor did I study her development, noting how the_cat_ traits at certain periods (corresponding to the Feast of Bast)proclaimed themselves above the human traits, whilst at other timesthe psychic-felinism sank into a sort of sub-conscious quietude,leaving the subject almost a normal woman. Of the physical reflectionswhich were the visible evidence of her hybrid mentality I have alreadyspoken at length (_this refers to a portion of the statement which hasbeen deleted_). She invariably wore gloves out of doors and a veil toconceal the chatoyant eyes. She could, as I have explained, see aswell in the dark as in daylight, and her agility was phenomenal as washer power of climbing. Having her hands and feet bare I haverepeatedly seen her climb to the top platform of the ivy-clad tower ofFriar's Park.
At the age of eleven, then, I recognized that the balance of characterwas definitely established, and that the two outstandingcharacteristics of the subject were--firstly (a hereditary trait ofthe Coverlys) an intense pride of race and a fierce jealousy of anyinfringement upon what she regarded as prerogatives of birth;secondly, a susceptibility to sudden infatuations which invariablyterminated in a mood of ferocious cruelty.
To one unacquainted with the Orient, thus to speak of this girl--inyears a mere child--as one speaks of a mature woman, would seemstrange, if not unnatural. But in the East, of course, at the age often a girl is counted marriageable; at the age of fourteen she is notinfrequently the devoted mother of a family.
Significantly--from the point of view of the Damar Greefe Law--my wardhad grown up, not as English girls grow, but, like the Easterners, asthe hot-house flower grows. The point has intense interest for thescientist. At the age of twelve she was a tall, slender woman,beautifully formed and with a natural elegance and taste which camefrom the Coverly stock, or possibly from her mother's side.
During eleven months of every year it would have been possible---although I considered it undesirable--for her to have appeared inpublic unveiled. She possessed features of perfect _Ancient Egyptianregularity_. I emphasize the point. Her eyes, during the day, werethose of a handsome native woman--almond-shaped and of a wonderfulamber color. At night they appeared green.
Of her fingers, toes, and the peculiar forma
tion of certain teeth Ihave spoken at length (_another reference to a deleted passage_). Iwill deal, now, with those manifestations which proclaimed themselvesduring the Sothic month of each year formerly associated with theFeast of Bast.
At such times, which I always dreaded, and with good cause, her innatelove of admiration became so excessive as to approach nearly to mania.She hungered for homage, for praise--I had almost said for adoration.
What I may term, for convenience, the _psychic_ side of her hybridmentality at these periods undoubtedly bordered closely upon trueinsanity; and learning from the Eurasian nurse to whom I have referredthe whole history of her birth, my charge, to whom I had given thename of Nahemah (students will recognize its significance), began todisplay even more marked evidence of a sort of monomania. Bast, thecat-goddess, became an obsession with her, and she finally conceivedthe idea that the attributes of that mystical and partly-understooddeity were active within her; that she was Bast, re-born. And,certainly, during one month of every year, her condition closelyresembled that which was termed in the Middle Ages "possession."
At such times, moreover (a phenomenon with which I have dealt atlength in my work on the subject), she evinced an antipathy towardsthe whole of the _canine_ species which was reciprocated in a singularway. Thus, when, contrary to my express orders, she has wanderedabroad during the Sothic period, I have been enabled to trace hermovements by the progressive howling of dogs.
Since I had enjoined the nurse to be silent upon all things bearingupon Nahemah's birth, I was enraged at this breach of faith and sentthe woman away. But a new situation had been created which I foundmyself called upon immediately to face.
Nahemah demanded news of her family. As I have made sufficientlyevident, it was often difficult, if not impossible, to thwart thedesires of my protegee. To condense into a few words a matter whichoccasioned me long and anxious thought, I may say that I made thenecessary arrangements for quitting the house near to the Mosque ofMuayyad which had been my home for fifteen years.
I recognized the danger of Nahemah's traveling in the ordinary way,and she performed the journey to England in the character of aninvalid under my professional care. Equally, residence at any publicestablishment was out of the question, and although I found myselfcompelled for a time to court discovery by lodging Nahemah in aprivate suite in an obscure hotel, I hastened to seek a house in somequiet suburb which should reproduce as nearly as possible theadvantages of my abode in Cairo.
Such a house I discovered after about a week of feverish questing (forapart from the ordinary dangers of discovery to which my protegee wassubject, her proclivity for adventures at the most unseasonable timesgreatly enhanced the danger which I apprehended). Judge, then, of mysatisfaction when I succeeded in obtaining the lease of a smallvilla--indeed I might almost term it a bungalow--in one of those oddsurvivals of less crowded days which are yet counted suburbs or partsof greater London.
This house stood alone in some two acres of ground, and because of itslack of modern conveniences and the comparative inaccessibility of itsposition, my application was eagerly entertained by the agentinterested in the leasing of the property. One week later I enteredinto possession, Cassim, Nahemah and myself comprising the entirehousehold. Much of my valuable--indeed I may say unique--collection, Ihad been compelled to store; for my new quarters lacked the necessaryspace for the purpose. But although I was unaware of the fact at thetime, I was not destined to be long deprived of a suitable home forthe records of my life's work.
Nahemah's demand for some understanding between herself and her familygrew daily more insistent; but I might have continued to oppose herwishes had it not been for the fact that by this time my slenderresources were almost exhausted.
It suddenly became evident to me that I held in my hand an instrumentwhereby I might force Sir Burnham Coverly to finance the newexperiments upon which I had entered at this time with all theenthusiasm that a love for science inspires in the student! You mayjudge me unscrupulous, but the wheel of progress is at least asunrelenting. It was not, however, without much searching self-analysisthat one day I presented myself before Sir Burnham Coverly at Friar'sPark.
If I had had any scruples prior to that visit they were instantlydispelled by the manner of my reception. Forgetful of the servicewhich (as he believed) I had done him in the past, Sir Burnham allowedall the prejudice of the Anglo-Indian to reveal itself in his firstgreeting.
Because I am an Eurasian, the worst traits which attach to such aparentage--and of which I am only too painfully conscious--revealedthemselves in me. My heart hardened towards this man whose treatmentof an intellectual superior was so icily, so offensivelycondescending. Knowing that I had it in my power to deal him a blowfrom which he might never recover, I toyed with him for a time; and,his manner growing momentarily more objectionable, I rejoiced to knowthat his very life and career were in my keeping.
His son, Roger Coverly, at that time a boy only about nine years old,as the prospective heir to Friar's Park was cherished as an only childis always cherished in these circumstances. I pictured to myself themeeting of brother and sister! Yes! because of the refined anddeliberate cruelty which Sir Burnham displayed towards myself, Iretaliated with a poisoned blade. Having led the conversation in thedirection of the heir, I threw away the scabbard of pretense--Ilaunched my challenge.
Never shall I forget Sir Burnham's change of countenance. He tottered,a stricken man. With a sentence of ten words I had won my battle. Uponthe details of the arrangement which presently was come to between us,I need not linger. For this statement is intended not as adefense--for what I have done I pay the price--but as a resume ofthis crowning inquiry of my scientific career.
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At this point the speaker was seized with an alarming spasm of pain.His black eyes opened widely and his face became contorted with agony.
I sprang to his assistance. For, villain self-confessed though he was,humanity would not allow of any man's witnessing unmoved suchparoxysms in a fellow creature.
But, ere I could reach his side, Damar Greefe, clenching his teeth andclutching at the chair-arms so that his knuckles gleamed in thelamp-light like white marbles, turned his glance upon me, and:
"Be seated, sir," he whispered. "I desire you to be seated."
Something repellent, yet something powerful, there was in word andglance. Gatton, who also had sprung forward, hesitated. Damar Greeferaised one hand from the chair-arm and waved to us to return to ourchairs. Exchanging wondering glances, we both obeyed.
Thereupon, the Eurasian doctor, whose high, bony forehead was dewedwith a deathly perspiration and whose hawk-face had assumed anindescribable leaden hue, drew from his pocket a heavy gold watch (hisevery movement intently followed by the alert Inspector) and consultedit. His hand shook wildly as he returned the timepiece to its place.Then:
"I must hasten," he said hoarsely. "I have--only nineteenminutes...." Gatton looked at me questioningly, but I could onlyshake my head. The significance of the Eurasian's words escaped meentirely; but as Damar Greefe begun, slowly and with palpable effort,to speak again, I saw a queer expression stealing over the face of thewatchful Gatton.