CHAPTER XXIX
AN AFTERWORD
I wish it lay in my power to satisfy the curiosity in all quartersexpressed respecting the identity of "Nahemah"--the cat-woman, or_psycho-hybrid_, who figured in Dr. Damar Greefe's statement. But itis my duty, as chronicler of the strange and awful occurrences whichat this period disturbed the even tenor of my existence, to state thatfrom the moment in which she leaped from the window of Mrs.Wentworth's house to the path below, neither I nor any other witnesswho ever came forward _beheld her again_.
At the end of a quest which exercised the intricate machinery of NewScotland Yard throughout the length and breadth of the land, InspectorGatton was compelled to admit himself defeated in this particular. Andhis explanation of the failure to apprehend the central figure of thetragedies which had exterminated the house of Coverly was a curiousone.
"You know, Mr. Addison," he said to me one evening, "the more I thinkof this Nahemah the more I wonder if such a person ever reallyexisted!"
"What do you mean, Gatton?" I asked.
"Well," he replied, "I mean that although you and I and others areprepared to testify to the existence of a woman in the case, what dowe really know about her (leaving Damar Greefe's statement out of thequestion) except that she possessed very remarkable eyes?"
"And very remarkable agility," I interrupted.
"Yes, I'll grant you that," he said; "her agility was certainlyphenomenal. But, still, as I was saying, except for this definiteinformation we have no _proof_ outside the statement of Dr. DamarGreefe that such a person as Nahemah ever existed or at any rate thatthere ever was a creature possessing the attributes which he ascribedto her. The Laurels is an ordinary suburban house, which has beenleased for a number of years by a 'Mr. and Miss da Costa'--DamarGreefe, no doubt, and a female companion. But of his 'great work' andso forth there's not a trace. There are a lot of Egyptian antiquities,I'll admit, but not a scrap of evidence; and the rooms evidently usedby the female inmate of the household are those of an ordinarycultured Englishwoman."
"But, good heavens, Gatton," I cried, "whatever explanation can youoffer of a series of crimes which were palpably directed against themembers of the Coverly family?"
"I don't say," continued Gatton, "that there wasn't a sort of feud orvendetta at the bottom of the business. I merely mention that we haveno _evidence_ to show that the person responsible for it was any otherthan this Eurasian doctor."
"But what could have been his object?"
"I could suggest several; but my point at the moment is this: althoughI am prepared to grant that he had a woman associate of some kind, Ican't see that there is any evidence to prove that she was otherwisethan an ordinary human being, except that I am disposed to think shewas demented."
"You are probably right there, Gatton," I agreed; "and Dr. DamarGreefe was by no means normal; in fact I think he was a dangerous andvery brilliant maniac."
"At any rate," added Gatton, "no trace of this Nahemah has beenfound--which, at the least, is very significant."
"Significant, if you like," I replied; "but for my own part I have noambition whatever to see again those dreadful green eyes."
"I never did see them," said Gatton musingly; "therefore I can't speakupon the matter; but when we got Dr. Damar Greefe I think we had thehead of the conspiracy. How much of his 'statement' is true and howmuch the product of a diseased mind is something we are never likelyto know."
"Nor am I curious to know it," I assured him. "I only desire to forgetthe tragedies associated with the green eyes of Bast and to leave thedarkness of the past behind--"
"And," said Gatton, with a smile less grim than usual, "you have mybest wishes for the future."
THE END
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