Bat Wing
by
Sax Rohmer
Part 1 out of 6
Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
BAT WING
BY SAX ROHMER
[Illustration: "_When the woman raised her arms in a peculiar
fashion, the shadow on the blind was remarkably like that of a
bat_"]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. PAUL HARLEY OF CHANCERY LANE
II. THE VOODOO SWAMP
III. THE VAMPIRE BAT
IV. CRAY'S FOLLY
V. VAL BEVERLEY
VI. THE BARRIER
VII. AT THE LAVENDER ARMS
VIII. THE CALL OF M'KOMBO
IX. OBEAH
X. THE NIGHT WALKER
XI. THE SHADOW ON THE BLIND
XII. MORNING MISTS
XIII. AT THE GUEST HOUSE
XIV. YSOLA CAMBER
XV. UNREST
XVI. RED EVE
XVII. NIGHT OF THE FULL MOON
XVIII. INSPECTOR AYLESBURY OF MARKET HILTON
XIX. COMPLICATIONS.
XX. A SPANISH CIGARETTE
XXI. THE WING OF A BAT
XXII. COLIN CAMBER'S SECRET
XXIII. INSPECTOR AYLESBURY CROSS-EXAMINES
XXIV. AN OFFICIAL MOVE
XXV. AYLESBURY'S THEORY
XXVI. IN MADAME'S ROOM
XXVII. AN INSPIRATION
XXVIII. MY THEORY OF THE CRIME
XXIX. A LEE-ENFIELD RIFLE
XXX. THE SEVENTH YEW TREE
XXXI. YSOLA CAMBER'S CONFESSION
XXXII. PAUL HARLEY'S EXPERIMENT
XXXIII. PAUL HARLEY'S EXPERIMENT CONCLUDED
XXXIV. THE CREEPING SICKNESS
XXXV. AN AFTERWORD
CHAPTER I
PAUL HARLEY OF CHANCERY LANE
Toward the hour of six on a hot summer's evening Mr. Paul Harley was
seated in his private office in Chancery Lane reading through a number
of letters which Innes, his secretary, had placed before him for
signature. Only one more remained to be passed, but it was a long,
confidential report upon a certain matter, which Harley had prepared
for His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department.
He glanced with a sigh of weariness at the little clock upon his table
before commencing to read.
"Shall detain you only a few minutes, now, Knox," he said.
I nodded, smiling. I was quite content to sit and watch my friend at
work.
Paul Harley occupied a unique place in the maelstrom of vice and
ambition which is sometimes called London life. Whilst at present he
held no official post, some of the most momentous problems of British
policy during the past five years, problems imperilling inter-state
relationships and not infrequently threatening a renewal of the world
war, had owed their solution to the peculiar genius of this man.
No clue to his profession appeared upon the plain brass plate attached
to his door, and little did those who regarded Paul Harley merely as a
successful private detective suspect that he was in the confidence of
some who guided the destinies of the Empire. Paul Harley's work in
Constantinople during the feverish months preceding hostilities with
Turkey, although unknown to the general public, had been of a most
extraordinary nature. His recommendations were never adopted,
unfortunately. Otherwise, the tragedy of the Dardanelles might have
been averted.
His surroundings as he sat there, gaze bent upon the typewritten pages,
were those of any other professional man. So it would have seemed to
the casual observer. But perhaps there was a quality in the atmosphere
of the office which would have told a more sensitive visitor that it
was the apartment of no ordinary man of business. Whilst there were
filing cabinets and bookshelves laden with works of reference, many of
them legal, a large and handsome Burmese cabinet struck an unexpected
note.
On closer inspection, other splashes of significant colour must have
been detected in the scheme, notably a very fine engraving of Edgar
Allan Poe, from the daguerreotype of 1848; and upon the man himself lay
the indelible mark of the tropics. His clean-cut features had that hint
of underlying bronze which tells of years spent beneath a merciless
sun, and the touch of gray at his temples only added to the eager,
almost fierce vitality of the dark face. Paul Harley was notable
because of that intellectual strength which does not strike one
immediately, since it is purely temperamental, but which, nevertheless,
invests its possessor with an aura of distinction.
Writing his name at the bottom of the report, Paul Harley enclosed the
pages in a long envelope and dropped the envelope into a basket which
contained a number of other letters. His work for the day was ended,
and glancing at me with a triumphant smile, he stood up. His office was
a part of a residential suite, but although, like some old-time burgher
of the city, he lived on the premises, the shutting of a door which led
to his private rooms marked the close of the business day. Pressing a
bell which connected with the public office occupied by his secretary,
Paul Harley stood up as Innes entered.
"There's nothing further, is there, Innes?" he asked.
"Nothing, Mr. Harley, if you have passed the Home Office report?"
Paul Harley laughed shortly.
"There it is," he replied, pointing to the basket; "a tedious and
thankless job, Innes. It is the fifth draft you have prepared and it
will have to do."
He took up a letter which lay unsealed upon the table. "This is the
Rokeby affair," he said. "I have decided to hold it over, after all,
until my return."
"Ah!" said Innes, quietly glancing at each envelope as he took it from
the basket. "I see you have turned down the little job offered by the
Marquis."
"I have," replied Harley, smiling grimly, "and a fee of five hundred
guineas with it. I have also intimated to that distressed nobleman that
this is a business office and that a laundry is the proper place to
take his dirty linen. No, there's nothing further to-night, Innes. You
can get along now. Has Miss Smith gone?"
But as if in answer to his enquiry the typist, who with Innes made up
the entire staff of the office, came in at that moment, a card in her
hand. Harley glanced across in my direction and then at the card, with
a wry expression.
"Colonel Juan Menendez," he read aloud, "Cavendish Club," and glanced
reflectively at Innes. "Do we know the Colonel?"
"I think not," answered Innes; "the name is unfamiliar to me."
"I wonder," murmured Harley. He glanced across at me. "It's an awful
nuisance, Knox, but just as I thought the decks were clear. Is it
something really interesting, or does he want a woman watched? However,
his name sounds piquant, so perhaps I had better see him. Ask him to
come in, Miss Smith."
Innes and Miss Smith retiring, there presently entered a man of most
striking and unusual presence. In the first place, Colonel Menendez
must have stood fully six feet in his boots, and he carried himself
like a grandee of the golden days of Spain. His complexion was
extraordinarily dusky, whilst his hair, which was close cropped, was
iron gray. His heavy eyebrows and curling moustache with its little
points were equally black, so that his large teeth gleamed very
fiercely when he smiled. His eyes were large, dark, and brilliant, and
although he wore an admirably cut tweed suit, for some reason I
pictured him as habitually wearing riding kit. Indeed I almost seemed
to hear the jingle of his spurs.
He carried an ebony cane for which I mentally substituted a crop, and
his black derby hat I thought hardly as suitable as a sombrero. His age
might have been anything between fifty and fifty-five.
Standing in the doorway he bowed, and if his smile was Mephistophelean,
there was much about Colonel Juan Menendez which commanded respect.
"Mr. Harley," he began, and his high, thin voice afforded yet another
surprise, "I feel somewhat ill at ease to--how do you say it?--
appropriate your time, as I am by no means sure that what I have to say
justifies my doing so."
He spoke most fluent, indeed florid, English. But his sentences at
times were oddly constructed; yet, save for a faint accent, and his
frequent interpolation of such expressions as "how do you say?"--a sort
of nervous mannerism--one might have supposed him to be a Britisher who
had lived much abroad. I formed the opinion that he had read
extensively, and this, as I learned later, was indeed the case.
"Sit down, Colonel Menendez," said Harley with quiet geniality.
"Officially, my working day is ended, I admit, but if you have no
objection to the presence of my friend, Mr. Knox, I shall be most happy
to chat with you."
He smiled in a way all his own.
"If your business is of a painfully professional nature," he added, "I
must beg you to excuse me for fourteen days, as I am taking a badly
needed holiday with my friend."
"Ah, is it so?" replied the Colonel, placing his hat and cane upon the
table, and sitting down rather wearily in a big leathern armchair which
Harley had pushed forward. "If I intrude I am sorry, but indeed my
business is urgent, and I come to you on the recommendation of my
friend, Senor Don Merry del Val, the Spanish Ambassador."
He raised his eyes to Harley's face with an expression of peculiar
appeal. I rose to depart, but:
"Sit down, Knox," said Harley, and turned again to the visitor. "Please
proceed," he requested. "Mr. Knox has been with me in some of the most
delicate cases which I have ever handled, and you may rely upon his
discretion as you may rely upon mine." He pushed forward a box of
cigars. "Will you smoke?"
"Thanks, no," was the answer; "you see, I rarely smoke anything but my
cigarettes."
Colonel Menendez extracted a slip of rice paper from a little packet
which he carried, next, dipping two long, yellow fingers into his coat
pocket, he brought out a portion of tobacco, laid it in the paper, and
almost in the twinkling of an eye had made, rolled, and lighted a very
creditable cigarette. His dexterity was astonishing, and seeing my
surprise he raised his heavy eyebrows, and:
"Practice makes perfect, is it not said?" he remarked.
He shrugged his shoulders and dropped the extinguished match in an ash
tray, whilst I studied him with increasing interest. Some dread, real
or imaginary, was oppressing the man's mind, I mused. I felt my
presence to be unwelcome, but:
"Very well," he began, suddenly. "I expect, Mr. Harley, that you will
be disposed to regard what I have to tell you rather as a symptom of
what you call nerves than as evidence of any agency directed against
me."
Paul Harley stared curiously at the speaker. "Do I understand you to
suspect that someone is desirous of harming you?" he enquired.
Colonel Menendez slowly nodded his head.
"Such is my meaning," he replied.
"You refer to bodily harm?"
"But yes, emphatically."
"Hm," said Harley; and taking out a tin of tobacco from a cabinet
beside him he began in leisurely manner to load a briar. "No doubt you
have good reasons for this suspicion?"
"If I had not good reasons, Mr. Harley, nothing could have induced me
to trouble you. Yet, even now that I have compelled myself to come
here, I find it difficult, almost impossible, to explain those reasons
to you."
An expression of embarrassment appeared upon the brown face, and now
Colonel Menendez paused and was plainly at a loss for words with which
to continue.
Harley replaced the tin in the cupboard and struck a match. Lighting
his pipe he nodded good humouredly as if to say, "I quite understand."
As a matter of fact, he probably thought, as I did, that this was a
familiar case of a man of possibly blameless life who had become
subject to that delusion which leads people to believe themselves
threatened by mysterious and unnameable danger.
Our visitor inhaled deeply.
"You, of course, are waiting for the facts," he presently resumed,
speaking with a slowness which told of a mind labouring for the right
mode of expression. "These are so scanty, I fear, of so, shall I say,
phantom a kind, that even when they are in your possession you will
consider me to be merely the victim of a delusion. In the first place,
then, I have reason to believe that someone followed me from my home to
your office."
"Indeed," said Paul Harley, sympathetically, for this I perceived was
exactly what he had anticipated, and merely tended to confirm his
suspicion. "Some member of your household?"
"Certainly not."
"Did you actually see this follower?"
"My dear sir," cried Colonel Menendez, excitement emphasizing his
accent, "if I had seen him, so much would have been made clear, so
much! I have never seen him, but I have heard him and felt him--felt
his presence, I mean."
"In what way?" asked Harley, leaning back in his chair and studying the
fierce face.
"On several occasions on turning out the light in my bedroom and
looking across the lawn from my window I have observed the shadow of
someone--how do you say?--lurking in the garden."
"The shadow?"
"Precisely. The person himself was concealed beneath a tree. When he
moved his shadow was visible on the ground."
"You were not deceived by a waving branch?"
"Certainly not. I speak of a still, moonlight night."
"Possibly, then, it was the shadow of a tramp," suggested Harley. "I
gather that you refer to a house in the country?"
"It was not," declared Colonel Menendez, emphatically; "it was not. I
wish to God I could believe it had been. Then there was, a month ago,
an attempt to enter my house."
Paul Harley exhibited evidence of a quickening curiosity. He had
perceived, as I had perceived, that the manner of the speaker differed
from that of the ordinary victim of delusion, with whom he had become
professionally familiar.
"You had actual evidence of this?" he suggested.
"It was due to insomnia, sleeplessness, brought about, yes, I will
admit it, by apprehension, that I heard the footsteps of this
intruder."
"But you did not see him?"
"Only his shadow"
"What!"
"You can obtain the evidence of all my household that someone had
actually entered," declared Colonel Menendez, eagerly. "Of this, at
least, I can give you the certain facts. Whoever it was had obtained
access through a kitchen window, had forced two locks, and was coming
stealthily along the hallway when the sound of his footsteps attracted
my attention."
"What did you do?"
"I came out on to the landing and looked down the stairs. But even the
slight sound which I made had been sufficient to alarm the midnight
visitor, for I had never a glimpse of him. Only, as he went swiftly
back in the direction from which he had come, the moonlight shining in
through a window in the hall cast his shadow on the carpet."
"Strange," murmured Harley. "Very strange, indeed. The shadow told you
nothing?"
"Nothing at all."
Colonel Menendez hesitated momentarily, and glanced swiftly across at
Harley.
"It was just a vague--do you say blur?--and then it was gone. But--"
"Yes," said Harley. "But?"
"Ah," Colonel Menendez blew a cloud of smoke into the air, "I come now
to the matter which I find so hard to explain."
He inhaled again deeply and was silent for a while.
"Nothing was stolen?" asked Harley.
"Nothing whatever."
"And no clue was left behind?"
"No clue except the filed fastening of a window and two open doors
which had been locked as usual when the household retired."
"Hm," mused Harley again; "this incident, of course, may have been an
isolated one and in no way connected with the surveillance of which you
complain. I mean that this person who undoubtedly entered your house
might prove to be an ordinary burglar."
"On a table in the hallway of Cray's Folly," replied Colonel Menendez,
impressively--"so my house is named--stands a case containing
presentation gold plate. The moonlight of which I have spoken was
shining fully upon this case, and does the burglar live who will pass
such a prize and leave it untouched?"
"I quite agree," said Harley, quietly, "that this is a very big point."
"You are beginning at last," suggested the Colonel, "to believe that my
suspicions are not quite groundless?"
"There is a distinct possibility that they are more than suspicions,"
agreed Harley; "but may I suggest that there is something else? Have
you an enemy?"
"Who that has ever held public office is without enemies?"
"Ah, quite so. Then I suggest again that there is something else."
He gazed keenly at his visitor, and the latter, whilst meeting the look
unflinchingly with his large dark eyes, was unable to conceal the fact
that he had received a home thrust.
"There are two points, Mr. Harley," he finally confessed, "almost
certainly associated one with the other, if you understand, but both
these so--shall I say remote?--from my life, that I hesitate to
mention them. It seems fantastic to suppose that they contain a clue."
"I beg of you," said Harley, "to keep nothing back, however remote it
may appear to be. It is sometimes the seemingly remote things which
prove upon investigation to be the most intimate."
"Very well," resumed Colonel Menendez, beginning to roll a second
cigarette whilst continuing to smoke the first, "I know that you are
right, of course, but it is nevertheless very difficult for me to
explain. I mentioned the attempted burglary, if so I may term it, in
order to clear your mind of the idea that my fears were a myth. The
next point which I have concerns a man, a neighbour of mine in Surrey.
Before I proceed I should like to make it clear that I do not believe
for a moment that he is responsible for this unpleasant business."
Harley stared at him curiously. "Nevertheless," he said, "there must be
some data in your possession which suggest to your mind that he has
some connection with it."
"There are, Mr. Harley, but they belong to things so mystic and far
away from ordinary crime that I fear you will think me," he shrugged
his great shoulders, "a man haunted by strange superstitions. Do you
say 'haunted?' Good. You understand. I should tell you, then, that
although of pure Spanish blood, I was born in Cuba. The greater part of
my life has been spent in the West Indies, where prior to '98 I held an
appointment under the Spanish Government. I have property, not only in
Cuba, but in some of the smaller islands which formerly were Spanish,
and I shall not conceal from you that during the latter years of my
administration I incurred the enmity of a section of the population. Do
I make myself clear?"
Paul Harley nodded and exchanged a swift glance with me. I formed a
rapid mental picture of native life under the governorship of Colonel
Juan Menendez and I began to consider his story from a new viewpoint.
Seemingly rendered restless by his reflections, he stood up and began
to pace the floor, a tall but curiously graceful figure. I noticed the
bulldog tenacity of his chin, the intense pride in his bearing, and I
wondered what kind of menace had induced him to seek the aid of Paul
Harley; for whatever his failings might be, and I could guess at the
nature of several of them, that this thin-lipped Spanish soldier knew
the meaning of fear I was not prepared to believe.
"Before you proceed further, Colonel Menendez," said Harley, "might I
ask when you left Cuba?"
"Some three years ago," was his reply. "Because--" he hesitated
curiously--"of health motives, I leased a property in England,
believing that here I should find peace."
"In other words, you were afraid of something or someone in Cuba?"
Colonel Menendez turned in a flash, glaring down at the speaker.
"I never feared any man in my life, Mr. Harley," he said, coldly.
"Then why are you here?"
The Colonel placed the stump of his first cigarette in an ash tray and
lighted that which he had newly made.
"It is true," he admitted. "Forgive me. Yet what I said was that I
never feared any man."
He stood squarely in front of the Burmese cabinet, resting one hand
upon his hip. Then he added a remark which surprised me.
"Do you know anything of Voodoo?" he asked.
Paul Harley took his pipe from between his teeth and stared at the
speaker silently for a moment. "Voodoo?" he echoed. "You mean negro
magic?"
"Exactly."
"My studies have certainly not embraced it," replied Harley, quietly,
"nor has it hitherto come within my experience. But since I have lived
much in the East, I am prepared to learn that Voodoo may not be a
negligible quantity. There are forces at work in India which we in
England improperly understand. The same may be true of Cuba."
"The same _is_ true of Cuba."
Colonel Menendez glared almost fiercely across the room at Paul Harley.
"And do I understand," asked the latter, "that the danger which you
believe to threaten you is associated with Cuba?"
"That, Mr. Harley, is for you to decide when all the facts shall be in
your possession. Do you wish that I proceed?"
"By all means. I must confess that I am intensely interested."
"Very well, Mr. Harley. I have something to show you."
From an inside breast pocket Colonel Menendez drew out a gold-mounted
case, and from the case took some flat, irregularly shaped object
wrapped in a piece of tissue paper. Unfolding the paper, he strode
across and laid the object which it had contained upon the blotting pad
in front of my friend.
Impelled by curiosity I stood up and advanced to inspect it. It was of
a dirty brown colour, some five or six inches long, and appeared to
consist of a kind of membrane. Harley, his elbow on the table, was
staring down at it questioningly.
"What is it?" I said; "some kind of leaf?"
"No," replied Harley, looking up into the dark face of the Spanish
colonel; "I think I know what it is."
"I, also, know what it is." declared Colonel Menendez, grimly." But
tell me what to you it seems like, Mr. Harley?"
Paul Harley's expression was compounded of incredulity, wonder, and
something else, as, continuing to stare at the speaker, he replied:
"It is the wing of a bat."
CHAPTER II
THE VOODOO SWAMP
Often enough my memory has recaptured that moment in Paul Harley's
office, when Harley, myself, and the tall Spaniard stood looking down
at the bat wing lying upon the blotting pad.
My brilliant friend at times displayed a sort of prescience, of which I
may have occasion to speak later, but I, together with the rest of pur-
blind humanity, am commonly immune from the prophetic instinct.
Therefore I chronicle the fact for what it may be worth, that as I
gazed with a sort of disgust at the exhibit lying upon the table I
became possessed of a conviction, which had no logical basis, that a
door had been opened through which I should step into a new avenue of
being; I felt myself to stand upon the threshold of things strange and
terrible, but withal alluring. Perhaps it is true that in the great
crises of life the inner eye becomes momentarily opened.
With intense curiosity I awaited the Colonel's next words, but, a
cigarette held nervously between his fingers, he stood staring at
Harley, and it was the latter who broke that peculiar silence which had
fallen upon us.
"The wing of a bat," he murmured, then touched it gingerly. "Of what
kind of bat, Colonel Menendez? Surely not a British species?"
"But emphatically not a British species," replied the Spaniard. "Yet
even so the matter would be strange."
"I am all anxiety to learn the remainder of your story, Colonel
Menendez."
"Good. Your interest comforts me very greatly, Mr. Harley. But when
first I came, you led me to suppose that you were departing from
London?"
"Such, at the time, was my intention, sir." Paul Harley smiled
slightly. "Accompanied by my friend, Mr. Knox, I had proposed to
indulge in a fortnight's fishing upon the Norfolk Broads."
"Fishing?"
"Yes."
"A peaceful occupation, Mr. Harley, and a great rest-cure for one who
like yourself moves much amid the fiercer passions of life. You were
about to make holiday?"
Paul Harley nodded.
"It is cruel of me to intrude upon such plans," continued Colonel
Menendez, dexterously rolling his cigarette around between his fingers.
"Yet because of my urgent need I dare to do so. Would yourself and your
friend honour me with your company at Cray's Folly for a few days? I
can promise you good entertainment, although I regret that there is no
fishing; but It may chance that there will be other and more exciting
sport."
Harley glanced at me significantly.
"Do I understand you to mean, Colonel Menendez," he asked, "that you
have reason to believe that this conspiracy directed against you is
about to come to a head?"
Colonel Menendez nodded, at the same time bringing his hand down
sharply upon the table.
"Mr. Harley," he replied, his high, thin voice sunken almost to a
whisper, "Wednesday night is the night of the full moon." "The full
moon?"
"It is at the full moon that the danger comes."
Paul Harley stood up, and watched by the Spanish colonel paced slowly
across the office. At the outer door he paused and turned.
"Colonel Menendez," he said, "that you would willingly waste the time
of a busy man I do not for a moment believe, therefore I shall ask you
as briefly as possible to state your case in detail. When I have heard
it, if it appears to me that any good purpose can be served by my
friend and myself coming to Cray's Folly I feel sure that he will be
happy to accept your proffered hospitality."
"If I am likely to be of the slightest use I shall be delighted," said
I, which indeed was perfectly true.
Whilst I had willingly agreed to accompany Harley to Norfolk I had none
of his passion for the piscatorial art, and the promise of novel
excitement held out by Colonel Menendez appealed to me more keenly than
the lazy days upon the roads which Harley loved.
"Gentlemen"--the Colonel bowed profoundly--"I am honoured and
delighted. When you shall have heard my story I know what your decision
will be."
He resumed his seat, and began, it seemed almost automatically, to roll
a fresh cigarette.
"I am all attention," declared Harley, and his glance strayed again in
a wondering fashion to the bat wing lying on his table.
"I will speak briefly," resumed our visitor, "and any details which may
seem to you to be important can be discussed later when you are my
guests. You must know then that I first became acquainted with the
significance belonging to the term 'Bat Wing' and to the object itself
some twenty years ago."
"But surely," interrupted Harley, incredulously, "you are not going to
tell me that the menace of which you complain is of twenty years'
standing?"
"At your express request, Mr. Harley," returned the Colonel a trifle
brusquely, "I am dealing with possibilities which are remote, because
in your own words it is sometimes the remote which proves to be the
intimate. It was then rather more than twenty years ago, at a time when
great political changes were taking place in the West Indies, that my
business interests, which are mainly concerned with sugar, carried me
to one of the smaller islands which had formerly been under--my
jurisdiction, do you say? Here I had a house and estate, and here in
the past I had experienced much trouble with the natives.
"I do not disguise from you that I was unpopular, and on my return I
met with unmistakable signs of hostility. My native workmen were
insubordinate. In fact, it was the reports from my overseers which had
led me to visit the island. I made a tour of the place, believing it to
be necessary to my interests that I should get once more in touch with
negro feeling, since I had returned to my home in Cuba after the
upheavals in '98. Very well.
"The manager of my estate, a capable man, was of opinion that there
existed a secret organization amongst the native labourers operating--
you understand?--against my interests. He produced certain evidences
of this. They were not convincing; and all my enquiries and
examinations of certain inhabitants led to no definite results. Yet I
grew more and more to feel that enemies surrounded me."
He paused to light his third cigarette, and whilst he did so I conjured
up a mental picture of his "examinations of certain inhabitants." I
recalled hazily those stories of Spanish mismanagement and cruelty
which had directly led to United States interferences in the islands.
But whilst I could well believe that this man's life had not been safe
in those bad old days in the West Indies, I found it difficult to
suppose that a native plot against his safety could have survived for
more than twenty years and have come to a climax in England. However, I
realized that there was more to follow, and presently, having lighted
his cigarette, the Colonel resumed:
"In the neighbourhood of the hacienda which had once been my official
residence there was a belt of low-lying pest country--you understand
pest country?--which was a hot-bed of poisonous diseases. It followed
the winding course of a nearly stagnant creek. From the earliest times
the Black Belt--it was so called--had been avoided by European
inhabitants, and indeed by the coloured population as well. Apart from
the malaria of the swampy ground it was infested with reptiles and with
poisonous insects of a greater variety and of a more venomous character
than I have ever known in any part of the world.
"I must explain that what I regarded as a weak point in my manager's
theory was this: Whilst he held that the native labourers to a man were
linked together under some head, or guiding influence, he had never
succeeded in surprising anything in the nature of a negro meeting.
Indeed, he had prohibited all gatherings of this kind. His answer to my
criticism was a curious one. He declared that the members of this
mysterious society met and received their instructions at some place
within the poison area to which I have referred, believing themselves
there to be safe from European interference.
"For a long time I disputed this with poor Valera--for such was my
manager's name; when one night as I was dismounting from my horse
before the veranda, having returned from a long ride around the estate,
a shot was fired from the border of the Black Belt which at one point
crept up dangerously close to the hacienda.
"The shot was a good one. I had caught my spur in the stirrup in
dismounting, and stumbled. Otherwise I must have been a dead man. The
bullet pierced the crown of my hat, only missing my skull by an inch or
less. The alarm was given. But no search-party could be mustered, do
you say?--which was prepared to explore the poison swamp--or so
declared my native servants. Valera, however, seized upon this incident
to illustrate his theory that there were those in the island who did
not hesitate to enter the Black Belt popularly supposed to cast up
noxious vapours at dusk of a sort fatal to any traveller.
"That night over our wine we discussed the situation, and he pointed
out to me that now was the hour to test his theory. Orders had
evidently been given for my assassination and the attempt had failed.
"'There will be a meeting,' said Valera, 'to discuss the next move. And
it will take place to-morrow night!'
"I challenged him with a glance and I replied:
"'To-morrow night is a full moon, and if you are agreeable we will make
a secret expedition into the swamp, and endeavour to find the clearing
which you say is there, and which you believe to be the rendezvous of
the conspirators.'
"Even in the light of the lamp I saw Valera turn pale, but he was a
Spaniard and a man of courage.
"'I agree, señor,' he replied. 'If my information is correct we shall
find the way.'
"I must explain that the information to which he referred had been
supplied by a native girl who loved him. That this clearing was a
meeting-place she had denied. But she had admitted that it was possible
to obtain access to it, and had even described the path." He paused.
"She died of a lingering sickness."
Colonel Menendez spoke these last words with great deliberation and
treated each of us to a long and significant stare.
"Presently," he added, "I will tell you what was nailed to the wall of
her hut on the night that she fell ill. But to continue my narrative.
On the following evening, suitably equipped, Valera and myself set out,
leaving by a side door and striking into the woods at a point east of
the hacienda, where, according to his information, a footpath existed,
which would lead us to the clearing we desired to visit. Of that
journey, gentlemen, I have most terrible memories.
"Imagine a dense and poisonous jungle, carpeted by rotten vegetation in
which one's feet sank deeply and from which arose a visible and
stenching vapour. Imagine living things, slimy things, moving beneath
the tread, sometimes coiling about our riding boots, sometimes making
hissing sounds. Imagine places where the path was overgrown, and we
must thrust our way through bushes where great bloated spiders weaved
their webs, where clammy night things touched us as we passed, where
unfamiliar and venomous insects clung to our garments.
"We proceeded onward for more than half an hour guided by the
moonlight, but this, although tropically brilliant, at some places
scarcely penetrated the thick vapour which arose from the jungle. In
those days I was a young and vigorous man; my companion was several
years my senior; and his sufferings were far greater than my own. But
if the jungle was horrible, worse was yet to come.
"Presently we stumbled upon an open space almost quite bare of
vegetation, a poisonous green carpet spread in the heart of the woods.
Here the vapour was more dense than ever, but I welcomed the sight of
open ground after the reptile-infested thicket. Alas! it was a snare, a
death-trap, a sort of morass, in which we sank up to our knees. Pah! it
was filthy--vile! And I became aware of great--lassitude, do you say?--
whilst Valera's panting breath told that he had almost reached the end
of his resources.
"A faint breeze moved through the clearing and for a few moments we
were enabled to perceive one another more distinctly. I uttered an
exclamation of horror.
"My companion's garments were a mass of strange-looking patches.
"Even as I noticed them I glanced rapidly down--and found myself in
similar condition. As I did so one of these patches upon the sleeve of
my tunic intruded coldly upon my bare wrist. At that I cried out aloud
in fear. Valera and I commenced what was literally a fight for life.
"Gentlemen, we were attacked by some kind of blood-red leeches, which
came out of the slime! In detaching them one detached patches of skin,
and they swarmed over our bodies like ants upon carrion.
"They penetrated beneath our garments, these swollen, lustful, unclean
things; and it was whilst we staggered on through the swamp in agony of
mind and body that we saw the light of many torches amid the trees
ahead of us, and in their smoky glare witnessed the flight of hundreds
of bats. The moonlight creeping dimly through the mist, and the
torchlight--how do you say?--enflaming the vegetation, created a scene
like that of Inferno, in which naked figures danced wildly, uttering
animal cries.
"Above the shrieking and howling, which rose and fell in a sort of
unholy chorus, I heard one long, wailing sound, repeated and repeated.
It was an African word. But I knew its meaning.
"It was '_Bat Wing_!'
"My doubts were dispersed. This was a meeting-place of Devil-
worshippers, or devotees of the cult of Voodoo! One man only could I
see clearly so as to remember him, a big negro employed upon one of my
estates. He seemed to be a sort of high priest or president of the
orgies. Attached to his arms were giant imitations of bat wings which
he moved grotesquely as if in flight. There were many women in the
throng, which numbered fully I should think a hundred people. But the
final collapse of my brave, unhappy Valera at this point brought home
to me the nature of the peril in which I stood.
"He lay at my feet, moving convulsively, and sinking ever deeper in the
swamp, red leeches moving slowly, slowly over his fast-disappearing
body."
Colonel Menendez paused in his appalling narrative and wiped his moist
forehead with a silk handkerchief. Neither Harley nor I spoke. I knew
not if my friend believed the Spaniard's story. For my own part I found
it difficult to do so. But that the narrator was deeply moved was a
fact beyond dispute.
He suddenly commenced again:
"My next recollection is of awakening in my own bed at the hacienda. I
had staggered back as far as the veranda, in raving delirium, and in
the grip of a strange fever which prostrated me for many months, and
which defied the knowledge of all the specialists who could be procured
from Cuba and the United States. My survival was due to an iron
constitution; but I have never been the same man. I was ordered to
leave the West Indies directly it became possible for me to be moved. I
arranged my affairs accordingly, and did not return for many years.
"Finally, however, I again took up my residence in Cuba, and for a time
all went well, and might have continued to do so, but for the following
incident. One night, being troubled by insomnia--sleeplessness--and the
heat, I walked out on to the balcony in front of my bedroom window. As
I did so, a figure which had been--you say lurking?--somewhere under
the veranda ran swiftly off; but not so swiftly that I failed to obtain
a glimpse of the uplifted face.
"It was the big negro! Although many years had elapsed since I had seen
him wearing the bat wings at those unholy rites, I knew him instantly.
"On a little table close behind me where I stood lay a loaded revolver.
I snatched it in a flash and fired shot after shot at the retreating
figure."
Colonel Menendez shrugged his shoulders and selected a fresh cigarette
paper.
"Gentlemen," he continued, "from that moment until this I have gone in
hourly peril of my life. Whether I hit my man or missed him, I have
never known to this day. If he lives or is dead I cannot say. But--" he
paused impressively--"I have told you of something that was nailed to
the hut of a certain native girl? Before she died I knew that it was a
death-token.
"On the morning after the episode which I have just related attached to
the main door of the hacienda was found that same token."
"And it was??" said Harley, eagerly.
"It was the wing of a bat!
"I am perhaps a hasty man. It is in my blood. I tore the unclean thing
from the panel and stamped it under my feet. No one of the servants who
had drawn my attention to its presence would consent to touch it.
Indeed, they all shrank from me as though I, too, were unclean. I
endeavoured to forget it. Who was I to be influenced by the threats of
natives?
"That night, just at the hour of sunset, a shot was fired at me from a
neighbouring clump of trees, only missing me I think by the fraction of
an inch. I realized that the peril was real, and was one against which
I could not fight.
"Permit me to be brief, gentlemen. Six attempts of various kinds were
made upon my life in Cuba. I crossed to the United States. In
Washington, the political capital of the country, an assassin gained
access to my hotel apartment and but for the fact that a friend chanced
to call me up on the telephone at that late hour of the night, thereby
awakening me, I should have received a knife in my heart. I saw the
knife in the dim light; I saw the shadowy figure. I leapt out on the
opposite side of the bed, seized a table-lamp which stood there, and
hurled it at my assailant.
"There was a crash, a stifled exclamation, shuffling, the door opened,
and my would-be assassin was gone. But I had learned something, and to
my old fears a new one was added."
"What had you learned?" asked Harley, whose interest in the narrative
was displayed by the fact that his pipe had long since gone out.
"Vaguely, vaguely, you understand, for there was little light, I had
seen the face of the man. He wore some kind of black cloak doubtless to
conceal his movements. His silhouette resembled that of a bat. But,
gentlemen, he was neither a negro nor even a half-caste; he was of the
white races, to that I could swear."
Colonel Menendez lighted the cigarette which he had been busily
rolling, and fixed his dark eyes upon Harley.
"You puzzle me, sir," said the latter. "Do you wish me to believe that
this cult of Voodoo claims European or American devotees?"
"I wish you to believe," returned the Colonel, "that although as the
result of the alarm which I gave the hotel was searched and the
Washington police exerted themselves to the utmost, no trace was ever
found of the man who had tried to murder me, except"--he extended a
long, yellow forefinger, and pointed to the wing of the bat lying upon
Harley's table--"a bat wing was found pinned to my bedroom door."
Silence fell for a while; an impressive silence. Truly this was the
strangest story to which I had ever listened.
"How long ago was that?" asked Harley.
"Only two years ago. At about the time that the great war terminated. I
came to Europe and believed that at last I had found security. I lived
for a time in London amidst a refreshing peace that was new to me.
Then, chancing to hear of a property in Surrey which was available, I
leased it for a period of years, installing--is it correct?--my cousin,
Madame de Stämer, as housekeeper. Madame, alas, is an invalid, but"--he
kissed his fingers--"a genius. She has with her, as companion, a very
charming English girl, Miss Val Beverley, the orphaned daughter of a
distinguished surgeon of Edinburg. Miss Beverley was with my cousin in
the hospital which she established in France during the war. If you
will honour me with your presence at Cray's Folly to-morrow, gentlemen,
you will not lack congenial company, I can assure you."
He raised his heavy eyebrows, looking interrogatively from Harley to
myself.
"For my own part," said my friend, slowly, "I shall be delighted. What
do you say, Knox?"
"I also."
"But," continued Harley, "your presence here today, Colonel Menendez,
suggests to my mind that England has not proved so safe a haven as you
had anticipated?"
Colonel Menendez crossed the room and stood once more before the
Burmese cabinet, one hand resting upon his hip; a massive yet graceful
figure.
"Mr. Harley," he replied, "four days ago my butler, who is a Spaniard,
brought me--" He pointed to the bat wing lying upon the blotting pad.
"He had found it pinned to an oaken panel of the main entrance door."
"Was it prior to this discovery, or after it," asked Harley, "that you
detected the presence of someone lurking in the neighbourhood of the
house?"
"Before it."
"And the burglarious entrance?"
"That took place rather less than a month ago. On the eve of the full
moon."
Paul Harley stood up and relighted his pipe.
"There are quite a number of other details, Colonel," he said, "which I
shall require you to place in my possession. Since I have determined to
visit Cray's Folly, these can wait until my arrival. I particularly
refer to a remark concerning a neighbour of yours in Surrey."
Colonel Menendez nodded, twirling his cigarette between his long,
yellow fingers.
"It is a delicate matter, gentlemen," he confessed.
"I must take time to consider how I shall place it before you. But I
may count upon your arrival tomorrow?"
"Certainly. I am looking forward to the visit with keen interest."
"It is important," declared our visitor; "for on Wednesday is the full
moon, and the full moon is in some way associated with the sacrificial
rites of Voodoo."
CHAPTER III
THE VAMPIRE BAT
An hour had elapsed since the departure of our visitor, and Paul Harley
and I sat in the cosy, book-lined study discussing the strange story
which had been related to us. Harley, who had a friend attached to the
Spanish Embassy, had succeeded in getting in touch with him at his
chambers, and had obtained some few particulars of interest concerning
Colonel Don Juan Sarmiento Menendez, for such were the full names and
titles of our late caller.
He was apparently the last representative of a once great Spanish
family, established for many generations in Cuba. His wealth was
incalculable, although the value of his numerous estates had
depreciated in recent years. His family had produced many men of subtle
intellect and powerful administrative qualities; but allied to this
they had all possessed traits of cruelty and debauchery which at one
time had made the name of Menendez a by-word in the West Indies. That
there were many people in that part of the world who would gladly have
assassinated the Colonel, Paul Harley's informant did not deny. But
although this information somewhat enlarged our knowledge of my
friend's newest client, it threw no fresh light upon that side of his
story which related to Voodoo and the extraordinary bat wing episodes.
"Of course," said Harley, after a long silence, "there is one
possibility of which we must not lose sight."
"What possibility is that?" I asked.
"That Menendez may be mad. Remorse for crimes of cruelty committed in
his youth, and beyond doubt he has been guilty of many, may have led to
a sort of obsession. I have known such cases."
"That was my first impression," I confessed, "but it faded somewhat as
the Colonel's story proceeded. I don't think any such explanation would
cover the facts."
"Neither do I," agreed my friend; "but it is distinctly possible that
such an obsession exists, and that someone is deliberately playing upon
it for his own ends."
"You mean that someone who knows of these episodes in the earlier life
of Menendez is employing them now for a secret purpose of his own?"
"Exactly."
"It renders the case none the less interesting."
"I quite agree, Knox. With you, I believe, that even if the Colonel is
not quite sane, at the same time his fears are by no means imaginary."
He gingerly took up the bat wing from the arm of his chair where he had
placed it after a detailed examination.
"It seems to be pretty certain," he said, "that this thing is the wing
of a Desmodus or Vampire Bat. Now, according to our authority"--he
touched a work which lay open on the other arm of his chair--"these are
natives of tropical America, therefore the presence of a living vampire
bat in Surrey is not to be anticipated. I am personally satisfied,
however, that this unpleasant fragment has been preserved in some way."
"You mean that it is part of a specimen from someone's collection?"
"Quite possibly. But even a collection of such bats would be quite a
novelty. I don't know that I can recollect one outside the Museums. To
follow this bat wing business further: there was one very curious point
in the Colonel's narrative. You recollect his reference to a native
girl who had betrayed certain information to the manager of the
estate?"
I nodded rapidly.
"A bat wing was affixed to the wall of her hut and she died, according
to our informant, of a lingering sickness. Now this lingering sickness
might have been anæmia, and anæmia may be induced, either in man or
beast, by frequent but unsuspected visits of a Vampire Bat."
"Good heavens, Harley!" I exclaimed, "what a horrible idea."
"It _is_ a horrible idea, but in countries infested by these creatures
such things happen occasionally. I distinctly recollect a story which I
once heard, of a little girl in some district of tropical America
falling into such a decline, from which she was only rescued in
the nick of time by the discovery that one of these Vampire Bats, a
particularly large one, had formed the habit of flying into her room at
night and attaching itself to her bare arm which lay outside the
coverlet."
"How did it penetrate the mosquito curtains?" I enquired,
incredulously. "The very point, Knox, which led to the discovery of
the truth. The thing, exhibiting a sort of uncanny intelligence, used
to work its way up under the edge of the netting. This disturbance of
the curtains was noticed on several occasions by the nurse who occupied
an adjoining room, and finally led to the detection of the bat!
"But surely," I said, "such a visitation would awaken any sleeper?"
"On the contrary, it induces deeper sleep. But I have not yet come to
my point, Knox. The vengeance of the High Priest of Voodoo, who figured
in the Colonel's narrative, was characteristic in the case of the
native woman, since her symptoms at least simulated those which would
result from the visits of a Vampire Bat, although of course they may
have been due to a slow poison. But you will not have failed to note
that the several attacks upon the Colonel personally were made with
more ordinary weapons. On two occasions at least a rifle was employed."
"Yes," I replied, slowly. "You are wondering why the lingering sickness
did not visit him?"
"I am, Knox. I can only suppose that he proved to be immune. You recall
his statement that he made an almost miraculous recovery from the fever
which attacked him after his visit to the Black Belt? This would seem
to point to the fact that he possesses that rare type of constitution
which almost defies organisms deadly to ordinary men."
"I see. Hence the dagger and the rifle?"
"So it would appear."
"But, Harley," I cried, "what appalling crime can the man have
committed to call down upon his head a I vengeance which has survived
for so many years?"
Paul Harley shrugged his shoulders in a whimsical imitation of the
Spaniard.
"I doubt if the feud dates any earlier," he replied, "than the time of
Menendez's last return to Cuba. On that occasion he evidently killed
the High Priest of Voodoo."
I uttered an exclamation of scorn.
"My dear Harley," I said, "the whole thing is too utterly fantastic. I
begin to believe again that we are dealing with a madman."
Harley glanced down at the wing of the bat.
"We shall see," he murmured. "Even if the only result of our visit is
to make the acquaintance of the Colonel's household our time will not
have been wasted."
"No," said I, "that is true enough. I am looking forward to meeting
Madame de Stämer--"
"The Colonel's invalid cousin," added Harley, tonelessly.
"And her companion, Miss Beverley."
"Quite so. Nor must we forget the Spanish butler, and the Colonel
himself, whose acquaintance I am extremely anxious to renew."
"The whole thing is wildly bizarre, Harley."
"My dear Knox," he replied, stretching himself luxuriously in the long
lounge chair, "the most commonplace life hovers on the edge of the
bizarre. But those of us who overstep the border become preposterous in
the eyes of those who have never done so. This is not because the
unusual is necessarily the untrue, but because writers of fiction have
claimed the unusual as their particular province, and in doing so have
divorced it from fact in the public eye. Thus I, myself, am a myth, and
so are you, Knox!"
He raised his hand and pointed to the doorway communicating with the
office.
"We owe our mythological existence to that American genius whose
portrait hangs beside the Burmese cabinet and who indiscreetly created
the character of C. Auguste Dupin. The doings of this amateur
investigator were chronicled by an admirer, you may remember, since
when no private detective has been allowed to exist outside the pages
of fiction. My most trivial habits confirm my unreality.
"For instance, I have a friend who is good enough sometimes to record
my movements. So had Dupin. I smoke a pipe. So did Dupin. I investigate
crime, and I am sometimes successful. Here I differ from Dupin. Dupin
was always successful. But my argument is this--you complain that the
life of Colonel Don Juan Sarmiento Menendez, on his own showing, has
been at least as romantic as his name. It would not be accounted
romantic by the adventurous, Knox; it is only romantic to the prosaic
mind. In the same way his name is only unusual to our English ears. In
Spain it would pass unnoticed."
"I see your point," I said, grudgingly; "but think of I Voodoo in the
Surrey Hills."
"I am thinking of it, Knox, and it affords me much delight to think of
it. You have placed your finger I upon the very point I was
endeavouring to make. Voodoo in the Surrey Hills! Quite so. Voodoo in
some island of the Caribbean Seas, yes, but Voodoo in the Surrey Hills,
no. Yet, my dear fellow, there is a regular steamer service between
South America and England. Or one may embark at Liverpool and disembark
in the Spanish Main. Why, then, may not one embark in the West Indies
and disembark at Liverpool? This granted, you will also grant that from
Liverpool to Surrey is a feasible journey. Why, then, should you
exclaim, 'but Voodoo in the Surrey Hills!' You would be surprised to
meet an Esquimaux in the Strand, but there is no reason why an
Esquimaux should not visit the Strand. In short, the most annoying
thing about fact is its resemblance to fiction. I am looking forward to
the day, Knox, when I can retire from my present fictitious profession
and become a recognized member of the community; such as a press agent,
a theatrical manager, or some other dealer in Fact!"
He burst out laughing, and reaching over to a side-table refilled my
glass and his own.
"There lies the wing of a Vampire Bat," he said, pointing, "in Chancery
Lane. It is impossible. Yet," he raised his glass, "'Pussyfoot' Johnson
has visited Scotland, the home of Whisky!"
We were silent for a while, whilst I considered his remarks.
"The conclusion to which I have come," declared Harley, "is that
nothing is so strange as the commonplace. A rod and line, a boat, a
luncheon hamper, a jar of good ale, and the peculiar peace of a Norfolk
river--these joys I willingly curtail in favour of the unknown things
which await us at Cray's Folly. Remember, Knox," he stared at me
queerly, "Wednesday is the night of the full moon."
CHAPTER IV
CRAY'S FOLLY
Paul Harley lay back upon the cushions and glanced at me with a
quizzical smile. The big, up-to-date car which Colonel Menendez had
placed at our disposal was surmounting a steep Surrey lane as though no
gradient had existed.
"Some engine!" he said, approvingly.
I nodded in agreement, but felt disinclined for conversation, being
absorbed in watching the characteristically English scenery. This,
indeed, was very beautiful. The lane along which we were speeding was
narrow, winding, and over-arched by trees. Here and there sunlight
penetrated to spread a golden carpet before us, but for the most part
the way lay in cool and grateful shadow.
On one side a wooded slope hemmed us in blackly, on the other lay dell
after dell down into the cradle of the valley. It was a poetic corner
of England, and I thought it almost unbelievable that London was only
some twenty miles behind. A fit place this for elves and fairies to
survive, a spot in which the presence of a modern automobile seemed a
desecration. Higher we mounted and higher, the engine running strongly
and smoothly; then, presently, we were out upon a narrow open road with
the crescent of the hills sweeping away on the right and dense woods
dipping valleyward to the left and behind us.
The chauffeur turned, and, meeting my glance:
"Cray's Folly, sir," he said.
He jerked his hand in the direction of a square, gray-stone tower
somewhat resembling a campanile, which uprose from a distant clump of
woods cresting a greater eminence.
"Ah," murmured Harley, "the famous tower."
Following the departure of the Colonel on the previous evening, he had
looked up Cray's Folly and had found it to be one of a series of houses
erected by the eccentric and wealthy man whose name it bore. He had had
a mania for building houses with towers, in which his rival--and
contemporary--had been William Beckford, the author of "Vathek," a work
which for some obscure reason has survived as well as two of the three
towers erected by its writer.
I became conscious of a keen sense of anticipation. In this, I think,
the figure of Miss Val Beverley played a leading part. There was
something pathetic in the presence of this lonely English girl in so
singular a household; for if the menage at Cray's Folly should prove
half so strange as Colonel Menendez had led us to believe, then truly
we were about to find ourselves amid unusual people.
Presently the road inclined southward somewhat and we entered the
fringe of the trees. I noticed one or two very ancient cottages, but no
trace of the modern builder. This was a fragment of real Old England,
and I was not sorry when presently we lost sight of the square tower;
for amidst such scenery it was an anomaly and a rebuke.
What Paul Harley's thoughts may have been I cannot say, but he
preserved an unbroken silence up to the very moment that we came to the
gate lodge.
The gates were monstrosities of elaborate iron scrollwork,
craftsmanship clever enough in its way, but of an ornate kind more in
keeping with the orange trees of the South than with this wooded Surrey
countryside.
A very surly-looking girl, quite obviously un-English (a daughter of
Pedro, the butler, I learned later), opened the gates, and we entered
upon a winding drive literally tunnelled through the trees. Of the
house we had never a glimpse until we were right under its walls, nor
should I have known that we were come to the main entrance if the car
had not stopped.
"Looks like a monastery," muttered Harley.
Indeed that part of the building--the north front--which was visible
from this point had a strangely monastic appearance, being built of
solid gray blocks and boasting only a few small, heavily barred
windows. The eccentricity of the Victorian gentleman who had expended
thousands of pounds upon erecting this house was only equalled, I
thought, by that of Colonel Menendez, who had chosen it for a home. An
out-jutting wing shut us in on the west, and to the east the prospect
was closed by the tallest and most densely grown box hedge I had ever
seen, trimmed most perfectly and having an arched opening in the
centre. Thus, the entrance to Cray's Folly lay in a sort of bay.
But even as we stepped from the car, the great church-like oaken doors
were thrown open, and there, framed in the monkish porch, stood the
tall, elegant figure of the Colonel.
"Gentlemen," he cried, "welcome to Cray's Folly."
He advanced smiling, and in the bright sunlight seemed even more
Mephistophelean than he had seemed in Harley's office.
"Pedro," he called, and a strange-looking Spanish butler who wore his
side-whiskers like a bull fighter appeared behind his master; a sallow,
furtive fellow with whom I determined I should never feel at ease.
However, the Colonel greeted us heartily enough, and conducted us
through a kind of paved, covered courtyard into a great lofty hall.
Indeed it more closely resembled a studio, being partly lighted by a
most curious dome. It was furnished in a manner quite un-English, but
very luxuriously. A magnificent oaken staircase communicated with a
gallery on the left, and at the foot of this staircase, in a mechanical
chair which she managed with astonishing dexterity, sat Madame de
Stämer.
She had snow-white hair crowning the face of a comparatively young
woman, and large, dark-brown eyes which reminded me strangely of the
eyes of some animal although in the first moment of meeting I could not
identify the resemblance. Her hands were very slender and beautiful,
and when, as the Colonel presented us, she extended her fingers, I was
not surprised to see Harley stoop and kiss them in Continental fashion;
for this Madame evidently expected. I followed suit; but truth to tell,
after that first glance at the masterful figure in the invalid chair I
had had no eyes for Madame de Stämer, being fully employed in gazing at
someone who stood beside her.
This was an evasively pretty girl, or such was my first impression.
That is to say, that whilst her attractiveness was beyond dispute,
analysis of her small features failed to detect from which particular
quality this charm was derived. The contour of her face certainly
formed a delightful oval, and there was a wistful look in her eyes
which was half appealing and half impish. Her demure expression was not
convincing, and there rested a vague smile, or promise of a smile, upon
lips which were perfectly moulded, and indeed the only strictly regular
feature of a nevertheless bewitching face. She had slightly curling
hair and the line of her neck and shoulder was most graceful and
charming. Of one thing I was sure: She was glad to see visitors at
Cray's Folly.
"And now, gentlemen," said Colonel Menendez, "having presented you to
Madame, my cousin, permit me to present you to Miss Val Beverley, my
cousin's companion, and our very dear friend."
The girl bowed in a formal English fashion, which contrasted sharply
with the Continental manner of Madame. Her face flushed slightly, and
as I met her glance she lowered her eyes.
"Now M. Harley and M. Knox," said Madame, vivaciously, "you are quite
at home. Pedro will show you to your rooms and lunch will be ready in
half an hour."
She waved her white hand coquettishly, and ignoring the proffered aid
of Miss Beverley, wheeled her chair away at a great rate under a sort
of arch on the right of the hall, which communicated with the domestic
offices of the establishment.
"Is she not wonderful?" exclaimed Colonel Menendez, taking Harley's
left arm and my right and guiding us upstairs followed by Pedro and the
chauffeur, the latter carrying our grips. "Many women would be
prostrated by such an affliction, but she--" he shrugged his shoulders.
Harley and I had been placed in adjoining rooms. I had never seen such
rooms as those in Cray's Folly. The place contained enough oak to have
driven a modern builder crazy. Oak had simply been lavished upon it. My
own room, which was almost directly above the box hedge to which I have
referred, had a beautiful carved ceiling and a floor as highly polished
as that of a ballroom. It was tastefully furnished, but the foreign
note was perceptible everywhere.
"We have here some grand prospects," said the Colonel, and truly enough
the view from the great, high, wide window was a very fine one.
I perceived that the grounds of Cray's Folly were extensive and
carefully cultivated. I had a glimpse of a Tudor sunken garden, but the
best view of this was from the window of Harley's room, which because
it was the end room on the north front overlooked another part of the
grounds, and offered a prospect of the east lawns and distant park
land.
When presently Colonel Menendez and I accompanied my friend there I was
charmed by the picturesque scene below. Here was a real old herbal
garden, gay with flowers and intersected by tiled moss-grown paths.
There were bushes exhibiting fantastic examples of the topiary art, and
here, too, was a sun-dial. My first impression of this beautiful spot
was one of delight. Later I was to regard that enchanted demesne with
something akin to horror; but as we stood there watching a gardener
clipping the bushes I thought that although Cray's Folly might be
adjudged ugly, its grounds were delightful.
Suddenly Harley turned to our host. "Where is the famous tower?" he
enquired. "It is not visible from the front of the house, nor from the
drive."
"No, no," replied the Colonel, "it is right out at the end of the east
wing, which is disused. I keep it locked up. There are four rooms in
the tower and a staircase, of course, but it is inconvenient. I cannot
imagine why it was built."
"The architect may have had some definite object in view," said Harley,
"or it may have been merely a freak of his client. Is there anything
characteristic about the topmost room, for instance?"
Colonel Menendez shrugged his massive shoulders. "Nothing," he
replied. "It is the same as the others below, except that there is a
stair leading to a gallery on the roof. Presently I will take you up,
if you wish."
"I should be interested," murmured Harley, and tactfully changed the
subject, which evidently was not altogether pleasing to our host. I
concluded that he had found the east wing of the house something of a
white elephant, and was accordingly sensitive upon the point.
Presently, then, he left us and I returned to my own room, but before
long I rejoined Harley. I did not knock but entered unceremoniously.
"Halloa!" I exclaimed. "What have you seen?"
He was standing staring out of the window, nor did he turn as I
entered.
"What is it?" I said, joining him.
He glanced at me oddly.
"An impression," he replied; "but it has gone now."
"I understand," I said, quietly.
Familiarity with crime in many guises and under many skies had
developed in Paul Harley a sort of sixth sense. It was a fugitive,
fickle thing, as are all the powers which belong to the realm of genius
or inspiration. Often enough it failed him entirely, he had assured me,
that odd, sudden chill as of an abrupt lowering of the temperature,
which, I understood, often advised him of the nearness of enmity
actively malignant.
Now, standing at the window, looking down into that old-world garden,
he was "sensing" the atmosphere keenly, seeking for the note of danger.
It was sheer intuition, perhaps, but whilst he could never rely upon
its answering his summons, once active it never misled him.
"You think some real menace overhangs Colonel Menendez?"
"I am sure of it." He stared into my face. "There is something very,
very strange about this bat wing business."
"Do you still incline to the idea that he has been followed to
England?"
Paul Harley reflected for a moment, then:
"That explanation would be almost too simple," he said. "There is
something bizarre, something unclean--I had almost said unholy--at work
in this house, Knox."
"He has foreign servants."
Harley shook his head.
"I shall make it my business to become acquainted with all of them," he
replied, "but the danger does not come from there. Let us go down to
lunch."
CHAPTER V
VAL BEVERLEY
The luncheon was so good as to be almost ostentatious. One could not
have lunched better at the Carlton. Yet, since this luxurious living
was evidently customary in the colonel's household, a charge of
ostentation would not have been deserved. The sinister-looking Pedro
proved to be an excellent servant; and because of the excitement of
feeling myself to stand upon the edge of unusual things, the enjoyment
of a perfectly served repast, and the sheer delight which I experienced
in watching the play of expression upon the face of Miss Beverley, I
count that luncheon at Cray's Folly a memorable hour of my life.
Frankly, Val Beverley puzzled me. It may or may not have been curious,
that amidst such singular company I selected for my especial study a
girl so freshly and typically English. I had thought at the moment of
meeting her that she was provokingly pretty; I determined, as the lunch
proceeded, that she was beautiful. Once I caught Harley smiling at me
in his quizzical fashion, and I wondered guiltily if I were displaying
an undue interest in the companion of Madame.
Many topics were discussed, I remember, and beyond doubt the colonel's
cousin-housekeeper dominated the debate. She possessed extraordinary
force of personality. Her English was not nearly so fluent as that
spoken by the colonel, but this handicap only served to emphasize the
masculine strength of her intellect. Truly she was a remarkable woman.
With her blanched hair and her young face, and those fine, velvety eyes
which possessed a quality almost hypnotic, she might have posed for the
figure of a sorceress. She had unfamiliar gestures and employed her
long white hands in a manner that was new to me and utterly strange.
I could detect no family resemblance between the cousins, and I
wondered if their kinship were very distant. One thing was evident
enough: Madame de Stämer was devoted to the Colonel. Her expression
when she looked at him changed entirely. For a woman of such intense
vitality her eyes were uncannily still; that is to say that whilst she
frequently moved her head she rarely moved her eyes. Again and again I
found myself wondering where I had seen such eyes before. I lived to
identify that memory, as I shall presently relate.
In vain I endeavoured to define the relationship between these three
people, so incongruously set beneath one roof. Of the fact that Miss
Beverly was not happy I became assured. But respecting her exact
position in the household I was reduced to surmises.
The Colonel improved on acquaintance. I decided that he belonged to an
order of Spanish grandees now almost extinct. I believed he would have
made a very staunch friend; I felt sure he would have proved a most
implacable enemy. Altogether, it was a memorable meal, and one notable
result of that brief companionship was a kind of link of understanding
between myself and Miss Beverley.
Once, when I had been studying Madame de Stämer, and again, as I
removed my glance from the dark face of Colonel Menendez, I detected
the girl watching me; and her eyes said, "You understand; so do I."
Some things perhaps I did understand, but how few the near future was
to show.
The signal for our departure from table was given by Madame de Stämer.
She whisked her chair back with extraordinary rapidity, the contrast
between her swift, nervous movements and those still, basilisk eyes
being almost uncanny.
"Off you go, Juan," she said; "your visitors would like to see the
garden, no doubt. I must be away for my afternoon siesta. Come, my
dear"--to the girl--"smoke one little cigarette with me, then I will
let you go."
She retired, wheeling herself rapidly out of the room, and my glance
lingered upon the graceful figure of Val Beverley until both she and
Madame were out of sight.
"Now, gentlemen," said the Colonel, resuming his seat and pushing the
decanter toward Paul Harley, "I am at your service either for business
or amusement. I think"--to Harley--"you expressed a desire to see the
tower?"
"I did," my friend replied, lighting his cigar, "but only if it would
amuse you to show me."
"Decidedly. Mr. Knox will join us?"
Harley, unseen by the Colonel, glanced at me in a way which I knew.
"Thanks all the same," I said, smiling, "but following a perfect
luncheon I should much prefer to loll upon the lawn, if you don't
mind."
"But certainly I do not mind," cried the Colonel. "I wish you to be
happy."
"Join you in a few minutes, Knox," said Harley as he went out with our
host.
"All right," I replied, "I should like to take a stroll around the
gardens. You will join me there later, no doubt."
As I walked out into the bright sunshine I wondered why Paul Harley had
wished to be left alone with Colonel Menendez, but knowing that I
should learn his motive later, I strolled on through the gardens, my
mind filled with speculations respecting these unusual people with whom
Fate had brought me in contact. I felt that Miss Beverley needed
protection of some kind, and I was conscious of a keen desire to afford
her that protection. In her glance I had read, or thought I had read,
an appeal for sympathy.
Not the least mystery of Cray's Folly was the presence of this girl.
Only toward the end of luncheon had I made up my mind upon a point
which had been puzzling me. Val Beverley's gaiety was a cloak, Once I
had detected her watching Madame de Stämer with a look strangely like
that of fear.
Puffing contentedly at my cigar I proceeded to make a tour of the
house. It was constructed irregularly. Practically the entire building
was of gray stone, which created a depressing effect even in the
blazing sunlight, lending Cray's Folly something of an austere aspect.
There were fine lofty windows, however, to most of the ground-floor
rooms overlooking the lawns, and some of those above had balconies of
the same gray stone. Quite an extensive kitchen garden and a line of
glasshouses adjoined the west wing, and here were outbuildings, coach-
houses and a garage, all connected by a covered passage with the
servants' quarters.
Pursuing my enquiries, I proceeded to the north front of the building,
which was closely hemmed in by trees, and which as we had observed on
our arrival resembled the entrance to a monastery.
Passing the massive oaken door by which we had entered and which was
now closed again, I walked on through the opening in the box hedge into
a part of the grounds which was not so sprucely groomed as the rest. On
one side were the yews flanking the Tudor garden and before me uprose
the famous tower. As I stared up at the square structure, with its
uncurtained windows, I wondered, as others had wondered before me, what
could have ever possessed any man to build it.
Visible at points for many miles around, it undoubtedly disfigured an
otherwise beautiful landscape.
I pressed on, noting that the windows of the rooms in the east wing
were shuttered and the apartments evidently disused. I came to the base
of the tower, To the south, the country rose up to the highest point in
the crescent of hills, and peeping above the trees at no great distance
away, I detected the red brick chimneys of some old house in the woods.
North and east, velvet sward swept down to the park.
As I stood there admiring the prospect and telling myself that no
Voodoo devilry could find a home in this peaceful English countryside,
I detected a faint sound of voices far above. Someone had evidently
come out upon the gallery of the tower. I looked upward, but I could
not see the speakers. I pursued my stroll, until, near the eastern base
of the tower, I encountered a perfect thicket of rhododendrons. Finding
no path through this shrubbery, I retraced my steps, presently entering
the Tudor garden; and there strolling toward me, a book in her hand,
was Miss Beverley.
"Holloa, Mr. Knox," she called; "I thought you had gone up the tower?"
"No," I replied, laughing, "I lack the energy."
"Do you?" she said, softly, "then sit down and talk to me."
She dropped down upon a grassy bank, looking up at me invitingly, and I
accepted the invitation without demur.
"I love this old garden," she declared, "although of course it is
really no older than the rest of the place. I always think there should
be peacocks, though."
"Yes," I agreed, "peacocks would be appropriate."
"And little pages dressed in yellow velvet."
She met my glance soberly for a moment and then burst into a peal of
merry laughter.
"Do you know, Miss Beverley," I said, watching her, "I find it hard to
place you in the household of the Colonel."
"Yes?" she said simply; "you must."
"Oh, then you realize that you are--"
"Out of place here?"
"Quite."
"Of course I am."
She smiled, shook her head, and changed the subject.
"I am so glad Mr. Paul Harley has come down," she confessed.
"You know my friend by name, then?"
"Yes," she replied, "someone I met in Nice spoke of him, and I know he
is very clever."
"In Nice? Did you live in Nice before you came here?"
Val Beverley nodded slowly, and her glance grew oddly retrospective.
"I lived for over a year with Madame de Stämer in a little villa on the
Promenade des Anglaise," she replied. "That was after Madame was
injured."
"She sustained her injuries during the war, I understand?"
"Yes. Poor Madame. The hospital of which she was in charge was bombed
and the shock left her as you see her. I was there, too, but I luckily
escaped without injury."
"What, you were there?"
"Yes. That was where I first met Madame de Stämer. She used to be very
wealthy, you see, and she established this hospital in France at her
own expense, and I was one of her assistants for a time. She lost both
her husband and her fortune in the war, and as if that were not bad
enough, lost the use of her limbs, too."
"Poor woman," I said. "I had no idea her life had been so tragic. She
has wonderful courage."
"Courage!" exclaimed the girl, "if you knew all that I know about her."
Her face grew sweetly animated as she bent toward me excitedly and
confidentially.
"Really, she is simply wonderful. I learned to respect her in those
days as I have never respected any other woman in the world; and when,
after all her splendid work, she, so vital and active, was stricken
down like that, I felt that I simply could not leave her, especially as
she asked me to stay."
"So you went with her to Nice?"
"Yes. Then the Colonel took this house, and we came here, but--"
She hesitated, and glanced at me curiously.
"Perhaps you are not quite happy?"
"No," she said, "I am not. You see it was different in France. I knew
so many people. But here at Cray's Folly it is so lonely, and Madame
is--"
Again she hesitated.
"Yes?"
"Well," she laughed in an embarrassed fashion, "I am afraid of her at
times."
"In what way?"
"Oh, in a silly, womanish sort of way. Of course she is a wonderful
manager; she rules the house with a rod of iron. But really I haven't
anything to do here, and I feel frightfully out of place sometimes.
Then the Colonel--Oh, but what am I talking about?"
"Won't you tell me what it is that the Colonel fears?"
"You know that he fears something, then?"
"Of course. That is why Paul Harley is here."
A change came over the girl's face; a look almost of dread.
"I wish I knew what it all meant."
"You are aware, then, that there is something wrong?"
"Naturally I am. Sometimes I have been so frightened that I have made
up my mind to leave the very next day."
"You mean that you have been frightened at night?" I asked with
curiosity.
"Dreadfully frightened."
"Won't you tell me in what way?"
She looked up at me swiftly, then turned her head aside, and bit her
lip.
"No, not now," she replied. "I can't very well."
"Then at least tell me why you stayed?"
"Well," she smiled rather pathetically, "for one thing, I haven't
anywhere else to go."
"Have you no friends in England?"
She shook her head.
"No. There was only poor daddy, and he died over two years ago. That
was when I went to Nice."
"Poor little girl," I said; and the words were spoken before I realized
their undue familiarity.
An apology was on the tip of my tongue, but Miss Beverley did not seem
to have noticed the indiscretion. Indeed my sympathy was sincere, and I
think she had appreciated the fact.
She looked up again with a bright smile.
"Why are we talking about such depressing things on this simply
heavenly day?" she exclaimed.
"Goodness knows," said I. "Will you show me round these lovely
gardens?"
"Delighted, sir!" replied the girl, rising and sweeping me a mocking
curtsey.
Thereupon we set out, and at every step I found a new delight in some
wayward curl, in a gesture, in the sweet voice of my companion. Her
merry laugh was music, but in wistful mood I think she was even more
alluring.
The menace, if menace there were, which overhung Cray's Folly, ceased
to exist--for me, at least, and I blessed the lucky chance which had
led to my presence there.
We were presently rejoined by Colonel Menendez and Paul Harley, and I
gathered that my surmise that it had been their voices which I had
heard proceeding from the top of the tower to have been only partly
accurate.
"I know you will excuse me, Mr. Harley," said the Colonel, "for
detailing the duty to Pedro, but my wind is not good enough for the
stairs."
He used idiomatic English at times with that facility which some
foreigners acquire, but always smiled in a self-satisfied way when he
had employed a slang term.
"I quite understand, Colonel," replied Harley. "The view from the top
was very fine."
"And now, gentlemen," continued the Colonel, "if Miss Beverley will
excuse us, we will retire to the library and discuss business." "As
you wish," said Harley; "but I have an idea that it is your custom to
rest in the afternoon."
Colonel Menendez shrugged his shoulders. "It used to be," he admitted,
"but I have too much to think about in these days."
"I can see that you have much to tell me," admitted Harley; "and
therefore I am entirely at your service."
Val Beverley smiled and walked away swinging her book, at the same time
treating me to a glance which puzzled me considerably. I wondered if I
had mistaken its significance, for it had seemed to imply that she had
accepted me as an ally. Certainly it served to awaken me to the fact
that I had discovered a keen personal interest in the mystery which
hung over this queerly assorted household.
I glanced at my friend as the Colonel led the way into the house. I saw
him staring upward with a peculiar expression upon his face, and
following the direction of his glance I could see an awning spread over
one of the gray-stone balconies. Beneath it, reclining in a long cane
chair, lay Madame de Stämer. I think she was asleep; at any rate, she
gave no sign, but lay there motionless, as Harley and I walked in
through the open French window followed by Colonel Menendez.
Odd and unimportant details sometimes linger long in the memory. And I
remember noticing that a needle of sunlight, piercing a crack in the
gaily-striped awning rested upon a ring which Madame wore, so that the
diamonds glittered like sparks of white-hot fire.
CHAPTER VI
THE BARRIER
Colonel Menendez conducted us to a long, lofty library in which might
be detected the same note of un-English luxury manifested in the other
appointments of the house. The room, in common with every other which I
had visited in Cray's Folly, was carried out in oak: doors, window
frames, mantelpiece, and ceiling representing fine examples of this
massive woodwork. Indeed, if the eccentricity of the designer of Cray's
Folly were not sufficiently demonstrated by the peculiar plan of the
building, its construction wholly of granite and oak must have remarked
him a man of unusual if substantial ideas.
There were four long windows opening on to a veranda which commanded a
view of part of the rose garden and of three terraced lawns descending
to a lake upon which I perceived a number of swans. Beyond, in the
valley, lay verdant pastures, where cattle grazed. A lark hung
carolling blithely far above, and the sky was almost cloudless. I could
hear a steam reaper at work somewhere in the distance. This, with the
more intimate rattle of a lawn-mower wielded by a gardener who was not
visible from where I stood, alone disturbed the serene silence, except
that presently I detected the droning of many bees among the roses.
Sunlight flooded the prospect; but the veranda lay in shadow, and that
long, oaken room was refreshingly cool and laden with the heavy perfume
of the flowers.
From the windows, then, one beheld a typical English summer-scape, but
the library itself struck an altogether more exotic note. There were
many glazed bookcases of a garish design in ebony and gilt, and these
were laden with a vast collection of works in almost every European
language, reflecting perhaps the cosmopolitan character of the
colonel's household. There was strange Spanish furniture upholstered in
perforated leather and again displaying much gilt. There were suits of
black armour and a great number of Moorish ornaments. The pictures were
fine but sombre, and all of the Spanish school.
One Velasquez in particular I noted with surprise, reflecting that,
assuming it to be an authentic work of the master, my entire worldly
possessions could not have enabled me to buy it. It was the portrait of
a typical Spanish cavalier and beyond doubt a Menendez. In fact, the
resemblance between the haughty Spanish grandee, who seemed about to
step out of the canvas and pick a quarrel with the spectator, and
Colonel Don Juan himself was almost startling. Evidently, our host had
imported most of his belongings from Cuba.
"Gentlemen," he said, as we entered, "make yourselves quite at home, I
beg. All my poor establishment contains is for your entertainment and
service."
He drew up two long, low lounge chairs, the arms provided with
receptacles to contain cooling drinks; and the mere sight of these
chairs mentally translated me to the Spanish Main, where I pictured
them set upon the veranda of that hacienda which had formerly been our
host's residence.
Harley and I became seated and Colonel Menendez disposed himself upon a
leather-covered couch, nodding apologetically as he did so.
"My health requires that I should recline for a certain number of hours
every day," he explained. "So you will please forgive me."
"My dear Colonel Menendez," said Harley, "I feel sure that you are
interrupting your siesta in order to discuss the unpleasant business
which finds us in such pleasant surroundings. Allow me once again to
suggest that we postpone this matter until, shall we say, after
dinner?"
"No, no! No, no," protested the Colonel, waving his hand deprecatingly.
"Here is Pedro with coffee and some curaçao of a kind which I can
really recommend, although you may be unfamiliar with it."
I was certainly unfamiliar with the liqueur which he insisted we must
taste, and which was contained in a sort of square, opaque bottle
unknown, I think, to English wine merchants. Beyond doubt it was potent
stuff; and some cigars which the Spaniard produced on this occasion and
which were enclosed in little glass cylinders resembling test-tubes and
elaborately sealed, I recognized to be priceless. They convinced me, if
conviction had not visited me already, that Colonel Don Juan Sarmiento
Menendez belonged to that old school of West Indian planters by whom
the tradition of the Golden Americas had been for long preserved in the
Spanish Main.
We discussed indifferent matters for a while, sipping this wonderful
curaçao of our host's. The effect created by the Colonel's story faded
entirely, and when, the latter being unable to conceal his drowsiness,
Harley stood up, I took the hint with gratitude; for at that moment I
did not feel in the mood to discuss serious business or indeed business
of any kind.
"Gentlemen," said the Colonel, also rising, in spite of our protests,
"I will observe your wishes. My guests' wishes are mine. We will meet
the ladies for tea on the terrace."
Harley and I walked out into the garden together, our courteous host
standing in the open window, and bowing in that exaggerated fashion
which in another might have been ridiculous but which was possible in
Colonel Menendez, because of the peculiar grace of deportment which was
his.
As we descended the steps I turned and glanced back, I know not why.
But the impression which I derived of the Colonel's face as he stood
there in the shadow of the veranda was one I can never forget.
His expression had changed utterly, or so it seemed to me. He no longer
resembled Velasquez' haughty cavalier; gone, too, was the debonnaire
bearing, I turned my head aside swiftly, hoping that he had not
detected my backward glance.
I felt that I had violated hospitality. I felt that I had seen what I
should not have seen. And the result was to bring about that which no
story of West Indian magic could ever have wrought in my mind.
A dreadful, cold premonition claimed me, a premonition that this was a
doomed man.
The look which I had detected upon his face was an indefinable, an
indescribable look; but I had seen it in the eyes of one who had been
bitten by a poisonous reptile and who knew his hours to be numbered. It
was uncanny, unnerving; and whereas at first the atmosphere of Colonel
Menendez's home had seemed to be laden with prosperous security, now
that sense of ease and restfulness was gone--and gone for ever.
"Harley," I said, speaking almost at random, "this promises to be the
strangest case you have ever handled."
"Promises?" Paul Harley laughed shortly. "It _is_ the strangest
case, Knox. It is a case of wheels within wheels, of mystery crowning
mystery. Have you studied our host?"
"Closely."
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