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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/76059-0.txt b/76059-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..54db35e --- /dev/null +++ b/76059-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7506 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76059 *** + + + + + + + + THE THING + IN THE WOODS + + + BY + + HARPER WILLIAMS + + + + Robert McBride & Company + New York + 1924 + + + + + Copyright, 1924, by + ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY + + + Printed in the + United States of America + + + Published :: 1924 + + + + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER + + I. Lennox Says Good-Bye + II. The Light in the Woods + III. A Mysterious Call + IV. Dutchman's Hill + V. The Dead Cyclist + VI. A Boycotted Household + VII. What Happened in the Laboratory + VIII. I Go Fishing + IX. Problems + X. The Chicken-Huckster's Hoe + XI. Jakey Walks + XII. Mr. Crowfoot + XIII. An Afternoon Drive + XIV. The Cry in the Night + XV. Suspicions + XVI. I Catch a Burglar + XVII. A Midnight Chase + XVIII. Lennox's Story + XIX. The Mill Dam + XX. What We Found in the Saw-Mill + XXI. The Thing in the Woods + XXII. The Silver Bullet + + + + + THE THING + IN THE WOODS + + + + +THE THING IN THE WOODS + + + +I + +LENNOX SAYS GOOD-BYE + +I had just made my rounds of the wards for the last time, that June +evening, fifteen years ago, when Murchison, my chief, came to me with +the open letter in his hand. + +"Here's the very chance to suit you, Haverill," he said. "Read that! +A chap named Lennox, in Pennsylvania, wants a substitute for three +months. Small country practice--no work of any account, I +imagine--and a good holiday thrown in. Just reached me tonight, by +chance." + +I had finished my term as _interne_, and was leaving the hospital the +next day. The whole summer was before me, for after three years of +heavy work I owed myself one good vacation before settling to the +task of building up a private practice, and I was glad enough of the +chance to turn it to advantage. Every dollar I had saved I had put +aside for the future struggle, and Murchison knew it. How to take a +three months' vacation on next to nothing was no easy problem, and +only such an opportunity as this, for which I had been searching +vainly for weeks past, could solve it. + +I glanced at the signature below the letter. + +"George Lennox.... I used to know a George Lennox at college." + +"Probably the same man. He asks me to recommend some one reliable. +Funny idea. He can't have much opinion of his country colleagues, or +he'd simply hand the patients over. There can't be so many of them, +in a place like that. Rather fussy, I gather! Well, it might suit +you. I thought I'd ask you before I spoke to anyone else." + +It suited me so well, in prospect, that I sat down at Murchison's +desk and wrote off my application then and there. Lennox's answer +came promptly, dated from the small town in Pennsylvania where he had +been settled for the past five years. Beyond a few details about the +place, his letter told me very little. He was leaving for his +health, to take a three months' holiday abroad, and he wanted a +substitute as early as possible. The practice was that of the +average country doctor in a not over-populous neighbourhood. It was +a bracing district, not far from the mountains; there was good +fishing, and some shooting in the fall, and with the arrangements he +offered it fell in perfectly with my own plans. He was urgent that I +should take over the work as soon as I could, and after a brief +correspondence I settled up my affairs in the city--they were not +many--packed my few belongings, and went down. + +It was a small and primitive station at which I was deposited, after +a somewhat uninteresting train journey. The place struck me, even in +those days, as a survival of an earlier age; one of those little +backwaters left behind in the flow of progress. As I stood looking +about me at the stretch of dusty road, the hotel, and the few +clustered shops that marked the beginning of the village street, the +station-master came up. + +"You're for Doctor Lennox, ain't you?" he began. "His buggy's there +waitin'. I reckon Pete's over at the saloon, puttin' in time! I'll +step over an' tell him." + +I put my valise in the solitary vehicle he indicated, with a smart +roan mare in the shafts, and a moment later "Pete" appeared, drawing +a furtive black hand over his mouth. I addressed him curtly; if he +was to be my factotum during the next three months there would have +to be less of these rather free-and-easy ways. He eyed me civilly, +with some curiosity, muttering a darkie's invariable ready excuses; +climbed to the buggy seat, tilting his straw hat over his eyes, and +we set off. + +The village was not large. It seemed that Lennox's place was some +mile and a half out, and our road led for the most part through +woods. It was pretty country. The trees were tall and +close-growing, hickory and oak, with young saplings pushing a sturdy +growth between. There were boulders everywhere, the sullen granite +that in this district crops out through the earth's scant surface, +making the small farmer's life a perpetual harvest of stone picking. +To me, fresh from the city pavements, it was picturesque enough. +Once a hare loped across our path, and I saw Pete shift the reins to +scrabble in his coat pocket. He cast a half-sheepish glance at me as +he did so. + +"Have you lost something?" I asked. + +"No, sah! I jest recollected suthin'. Raikon dat hyar remin' me!" + +"Meeting a rabbit is supposed to be lucky, isn't it?" I remarked, +lighting a cigarette. "It seems to me I've heard so." + +He looked at me suspiciously, and I knew that I had divined correctly +the reason of that sudden dive. "Dat so, sah?" he said guilelessly. +"I 'spect all dem things jes' depend!" + +A few yards further the road took a bend. + +Along the narrow footpath at the side a girl was walking. She was +dressed in a short golf-skirt and cotton blouse, with a man's Panama +on her head, and from her look I took her for a chance summer visitor +rather than a resident. I noticed her only casually, but as the +buggy drew abreast she lifted her head, and instantly I felt Pete +swerve against me on the seat. His clumsy action made the horse +start. The girl laughed, a little mocking ripple--I heard her with a +glow of annoyance--and we shot off at increased pace up the road. + +I turned to the man angrily; he had drunk even more than I supposed. +His face was actually pale, as pale as a darkie's can be. His hand +was in his pocket again, and he turned my blame promptly on the horse. + +"Yoh clumsy trash, ain' yoh look whar yoh goin' a-skeerin' folks that +way! I'se larn yoh suthin' some day!" + +"What's the matter with you?" I said. "Can't you drive steadily?" + +He fell to muttering, apologetic, conciliatory. + +"'Deed, sah, dat hoss ain' got no sainse! I done druv dat hoss two +years, an' I _know_ her, sah! Dere ain' no hoss round got less +sainse. Sho as we met dat hyar I knew there was suthin' boun' ter +happen! I ain' got no use fur meetin' hyars in de mawnin'--no, sah! +I ain' doin' no business wiv 'em!" + +We reached Lennox's house without further incident. It was a grey +stone house, standing back in a pleasant garden, with barn and small +orchard adjoining. Lennox was out on the porch to welcome me. Pete +led the mare swiftly round to the side and began to unharness; I +think he was anxious to escape any possible comment I might make to +the doctor on his condition. + +"Well, so you've got here!" Lennox said as we shook hands. "I'm very +glad. Did you have a tiresome journey? Come inside. I'm very glad +to see you!" + +His tone was cordiality itself. To my ears it had even a note of +relief. It struck me instantly, as I looked at him, that he had been +through some recent stress of worry, if not ill-health. He had aged +considerably. He was older than I, and his hair already a little +grey at the temples. His face was lined and troubled, and he had an +uneasy way with his hands I did not like. I had known him always as +a rather steady-going, plodding sort of fellow, not given to excess +of nervous energy in any form, and his present appearance gave me +something of a shock. + +He led the way into the house. Dinner was already served. Lennox +followed the country custom in dining early. I don't know how the +staid elderly woman, who was both cook and housekeeper, and who was +to fulfil the same offices for me, would take to such an innovation +as dinner at seven. I ate well after my journey, Lennox but +sparingly. He offered me a high ball with the meal, but drank only +water himself. + +"I've got into country ways," he said. "I'm afraid you'll find the +place a bit dull, Haverill, but you'll manage all right. You can get +most things you want, down here; the tradespeople aren't bad." + +Over our meal we talked chiefly of the University days when we had +been more or less friends, though Lennox was already a senior when I +entered, of the men we had mutually known and of their careers, and +lightly only, of our own. Lennox was not over-talkative, but he +seemed more at ease as the day wore on. I could see he was glad to +have me definitely there, was anxious to start, but I was not quite +prepared for his answer when I asked him what day he thought of +leaving. + +"Oh, tomorrow! I shall get the twelve-thirty to the city. +Everything is ready." + +I suppose I looked rather blank, for I had counted on a couple of +days at least in his company before I was left alone. + +"You'll find everything easy to hand. I'll go over things with you +this evening. It isn't a specially busy place here, you know!" + +"And you'll be away three months?" I asked. + +"More or less.... My dear fellow, I want a change! I want it +frightfully!" I agreed with him. His eyes were wandering round the +room as he spoke. "The work's nothing here--worse luck! You'll have +practically a holiday. But I'm quite run down. There've been some +... some family worries. What's the matter, Pete?" + +The coloured man had come into the room. + +"De mare's done got anudder shoe loose. I 'specs I'll hev to take +her into town." + +"Again? You should have had it seen to this morning early." He +spoke irritably. "Take her in, and don't be late back!" + +"Yessah!" + +Pete went out lingeringly, and I more than suspected from his entry +that he had been listening, or attempting to listen, to our talk. + +"That man," I said when he had gone. "Do you find him all right?" + +"Pete?" Lennox lit a cigar. "He's invaluable! You'll find him a +splendid servant. He's been with me three years, and I wouldn't part +with him for a good deal. He has his faults, as all darkies have, +but he's thoroughly trustworthy!" + +I thought of the furtive groping in his pocket when we passed the +hare. + +"A bit superstitious, eh?" + +"What do you mean," Lennox fairly wheeled on me. "Has he been +talking?" + +"I imagine he carries an assortment of amulets about with him." + +"Oh, that!" He looked vaguely relieved. "All of 'em do. He's a +walking catalogue of superstitions. It's the only thing we have rows +about. I detest all that nonsense!" + +"I'll have a talk with him, some day," I said. + +"I wouldn't advise you to. In fact, I wouldn't advise you to +encourage him on the subject in any way. I think it's better to +leave those things alone. Darkies are darkies, and no power on earth +would persuade Pete against his rabbit's foot. No! Steer clear of +that, my dear fellow, and you'll find him all right." + +We spent the afternoon in the surgery. Lennox showed me a detailed +account of his cases--they were very few--in a notebook. He had +evidently been at pains that I should find no trouble in taking over +the work. + +"I've left some things in rather a mess," he said. "I told you I'd +been upset lately ... but I think you'll find it all right." + +Supper was at six. Pete, true to his word, brought the mare back +well before dusk. I could hear him whistling in the coach-house as +he hung the harness away. + +"I suppose you'd find use for a motor-cycle here?" I asked Lennox as +we sat in the dining-room after supper. It was barely dark outside, +but the housekeeper had already drawn the curtains and lighted the +lamp. I would have infinitely preferred my pipe on the porch, but if +Lennox chose to stew indoors this weather it was no business of mine, +and it would only be forced on me for one evening. + +"I used to have one," he said, "but I gave it up. The roads aren't +very good here, and I found a horse better. Did you bring one?" + +"It's coming on tomorrow." + +"Oh? Well, you'll suit yourself. The roads aren't very good at +night, but the mare is used to them. Not that I have many night +calls." + +It was a few minutes after that he looked at me suddenly as we sat +opposite one another across the unlighted hearth. + +"I suppose you're fit--in good health and all that. I didn't ask." + +"Perfectly." + +"That's good. Never had any nerve trouble, for instance?" + +"Not an atom!" + +"I'm glad. It's as well to be sure, you know." He laughed, rather +apologetically. "I was quite lucky to get you." + +It seemed that Lennox kept early hours. It was barely half-past ten +when he proposed turning in. The heavy country air had made me +sleepy, and I was ready enough to follow his lead. + +Lennox's room was directly over the surgery, with which it +communicated by a little staircase, convenient for night calls. Both +the surgery and the room above it had been built as a later addition +to the house. The bedroom would be mine later; for the present I was +put into a small extra bedroom across the landing from his own. + +I slept heavily, but a little after midnight, as I judged, I was +roused by hearing movements below stairs. People were talking; I +fancied I heard a woman's voice, low and querulous. Evidently it was +not a call too urgent to wait for daylight, for a few moments later I +heard the floor of Lennox's room creak as he returned to bed. I fell +asleep again easily, and when I woke the second time it was broad +daylight. + +I asked Lennox at breakfast if there was any fresh call for the day. +He looked at me narrowly. + +"Only the scarlatina case in the village and the woman at the Bend," +he said, referring to the two cases he had mentioned the day before. +"The woman is doing all right, but you might look in during the +afternoon. The buggy will be back by one o'clock." + +I smoked a pipe out in the orchard while he finished his packing. No +one came up the road the whole morning except the baker and a +travelling tinsmith; Lennox was right when he said I could take my +work easily. The house stood in a pretty enough position. There +were woods behind and about, skirting the orchard, and in front, on +the other side of the road, a strip of pasture sloped to a little +brook. The nearest dwelling was some two hundred yards away, down +the road to the village. It belonged to a small farmer, I learned, a +Pennsylvania Dutchman, as were most of the people about. + +At twelve the mare was hitched and waiting, and Lennox came to bid me +good-bye, after a few final instructions. We shook hands, and as he +climbed into the buggy and took up the reins I don't think I ever saw +a man's face express more utter and absolute relief. + + + + +II + +THE LIGHT IN THE WOODS + +My first week passed uneventfully. I was called out twice only, on +trivial cases, and I put in my spare time exploring the neighbourhood +generally. I was jaded with city life, and hospital work in +particular, and it was a perfect tonic to do nothing. I was too lazy +even to fish, though an excellent trout stream ran not far from the +house, through the woods at the back. Neighbours were not likely to +trouble me, nor I them. So far I had had but little intercourse with +the people about, except for professional visits and the usual +country exchange of greetings when I drove into the town for my mail. +In Lennox's time this task had fallen to Peter, but it was some years +since I had enjoyed the use of a horse, and I took pleasure in these +short trips. + +The housekeeper was subdued but efficient; she looked after my wants +methodically enough and rarely offered conversation, which suited me. +With Peter I got on all right. As Lennox had said, he was docile, +willing and capable, and did his work reliably. He seemed devoted to +the mare, and would converse with her at great length over the +morning grooming. + +Lennox had a fairly good library. In ways the house was comfortable +enough, and I fancy he must have had some small private income in +addition to the proceeds of his practice. + +I had my first tiff with Pete when I had been there nearly a +fortnight. Kerosene had given out; the oilman had omitted to call as +usual, and Mrs. Searle, the housekeeper, only made me aware of the +deficiency at supper-time. After the meal I ordered Peter to hitch +up and drive down to the village to get it. + +To my utter amazement he refused almost point-blank to go. He had a +lot of work to do; the buggy wasn't washed down yet; the mare hadn't +finished her feed. He'd go first thing in the morning. + +"Nonsense, Pete," I said. "The oil's wanted now. The mare hasn't +done five miles today, and it'll do her good! You washed the buggy +this afternoon, because I saw you." + +"Dat so, sah?" He rubbed his head. "Yes, I specs dat's so, now I +think. I dis-remembered it." + +"Then hurry up. You can be back by eight." + +His eyes rolled on me. + +"But it done get _dark_ by eight, sah!" + +"Well, you can take the carriage lamps!" + +"I ain't gwine take no kerridge lamps--no, sah! All de time I wuk +fur Doc' Lennox he ain' ask me to do no thing like that--no, sah; an' +ef he ask me _now_ I ain' gwine do it." + +"But you've driven the doctor at night, you fool, time and again!" I +cried, losing patience with him. "Don't stand there and tell me +lies!" + +He kept his ground, obstinate, deferential. + +"Yessir, I done druv Doc' Lennox. I ain' sayin' nothin' 'bout that. +I'se gwine drive you, doctah, ef yoh ask me, but I ain' gwine no +village affer dark tonight ter git no ker'sine. I ain' gwine +monkeyin' wi' no ha'ants, an' I d'want no ha'ants monkeyin' wid _me_!" + +That potent darkie word "ha'ants" gave me a clue. I strode out into +the kitchen to Mrs. Searle. + +"What's this nonsense with Peter? What is he afraid of?" I asked her. + +Mrs. Searle's grey faded eyes rested on me a moment inquisitively. +Then she went on with her dish-washing. + +"I reckon Peter's scared of the dark, sir," she answered civilly. +"Them niggers is jest like that! The oil can wait, as well as not. +There's more'n I thought, or I wouldn't have mentioned it to you." + +"It isn't going to wait," I said. "I'm not going to have this +absurdity in any house I live in!" + +I went back to Pete in the dining-room. I had left the doors +purposely open, and I swear he fairly squirmed when he saw me come in. + +"Now, Pete," I said. "You put the mare in at once. You're going +after that oil and I'm going with you, if you're such a holy coward +that you're afraid to drive a mile of road after dark alone!" + +If I had hoped to shame him, it was without result. + +"All right, sah!" he answered grandly, though I saw the relief in his +eyes. "Ef you'se gwine I'se gwine. Dey ain' no one gwine call _me_ +no cowa'd, doctah!" + +He went off to put the mare in, and in ten minutes I heard the grate +of wheels before the house. It was already dark outside, but a moon +was rising, and before we had driven far the carriage lamps were +scarcely needed. Pete was subdued; I think he was trying to preserve +his dignity in silence. I was tempted to a lecture, but remembered +what Lennox had said of the futility of trying to combat darkie +superstition. I was sure that Pete still carried his beloved rabbit +foot, and I hope it gave him comfort on the drive. + +We reached the village, took in our can of oil, which Pete stowed +under the buggy seat, and started to drive back. The moon was full +overhead now, but obscured more or less by fleeting clouds. I saw +Pete glancing several times at the buggy lamps. Presently he +slackened the reins a little. + +"I reckon we mought put dem out now, sah! Dey ain' no need er dem +lamps to see by." + +"As you like, Pete. Get down and put them out. I'll hold the reins." + +"I ain't got no need er gittin' out, sah! I kin raich 'em from here." + +He leaned over the splashboard at some inconvenience and extinguished +the lamps, it seemed to me with unnecessary alacrity. I could not +put his anxiety down altogether to the price of kerosene. + +"What's your worry about those lamps, Pete?" I asked. + +He turned guileless yet uneasy eyes upon me. + +"Dey jest ain' no _sainse_ burnin' 'em! Dey worry a pusson drivin' +dem lamps do." + +I let it go as one of his unplumbed darkie mysteries, and we drove +on. We were just entering upon the densest stretch of wood between +the house and the village when a curious sound caught my ears. It +was like the scrambling rush of some big bird through the trees to +the left of us; a night-hawk, probably, though the confused +wing-flaps were more like a turkey-buzzard. Coming unexpectedly on +the silence it startled me, but before I could turn to Pete he had +dropped the reins and flung himself upon me, a frenzied babbling +lump. He clung and muttered, while I strove to hold him off, and the +mare, taking fright at the moment, sent the light buggy rocking from +side to side on the road. I gave the man a push that nearly threw +him out. Once free of his clutch it was only a moment's work to +secure the reins, but we shaved a bad accident by the skin of our +teeth. Luckily we were not far from the house. My grip startled +Pete into sanity--it was at least flesh and blood that had him +there--and by the time I had pulled the mare to a standstill before +the gate he was able to get out, shaking still miserably from head to +foot, and seize the bridle. + +Between us we got the mare unharnessed and into the stable. She was +in a lather over head and shoulders, and I stood over the cringing +Pete while he rubbed her down. I think he never ceased praying the +whole time. + +Whatever the noise was that had frightened him--and I put it down to +no worse than an owl at the most--it had frightened him thoroughly. +There was no use attempting reason or rebuke with the abject +tooth-chattering being that followed me to the house, and I sent him +to bed with a grim reminder that I would talk to him on the morrow. +He did not go up immediately, however. For a long while I heard his +voice in confabulation with Mrs. Searle in the kitchen, where I did +not doubt he had made haste to secure every door and window against +the outside air. + +I lit a pipe and threw myself down in an armchair in the surgery, +where I had been in the habit of spending the last few evenings, +putting things to rights after my own fashion. If Pete's +superstition was going to obsess him to this extent my summer was +likely to be a lively one! No bird that ever flew was sufficient to +justify the extraordinary state into which he had thrown himself. +Whiskey might be at the root of it, despite Lennox's faith; I had +kept him under my eye in the village, but I knew that no human +vigilance is sharp enough to keep a darkle from drink if he has the +tendency. The sideboard was usually unlocked, but tomorrow I +determined to take the key into my own possession. + +Wanting something to read, and to lazy to go back into the +sitting-room, I fell to examining the contents of the surgery +bookshelves. There were the usual array of medical books, some new, +some old; apparently Lennox had kept himself more or less up to date. +At one end, on the upper shelf, were several volumes on mental +diseases, "Lunacy and its Causes," Hoffman's "Congenital Insanity," +and one or two recent pathological treatises that I knew only by +title. There was a well-known medical work on criminology among them +also, and from their number and disposition, and the several paper +bookmarks that caught my eye here and there, I judged that this +particular study must have had some attraction for Lennox. There was +nothing, however, that interested me for the moment, or that promised +cheerful reading. I had not come down here to dive into works on +mental disorders or the bound reports of Lunacy Commissions as +preliminary to passing a healthful holiday, and I fell back on a +month-old magazine that was lying on the surgery table. + +When I had finished it I turned the lamp slightly down and went out +on the porch, with the idea of trying to locate again the noise that +had caused such catastrophe that evening. + +The woods about were very still; not a leaf moved. The silence had +an intensity that was almost oppressive. Clouds had gathered, +obscuring the moon, and it was quite dark. + +Presently, above the line of the farther tree-tops, a gleam of light +shot up. It moved and swept, like a white arm outstretched against a +black curtain. So near as I could judge, it came from the direction +of Sliefer's dam, a point some two miles away, and at first glimpse I +thought it might be a fire, but the whiteness of it put that out of +the question. It had the appearance of a crude searchlight, but it +was less definite in ray and moved less steadily. More than anything +else, it reminded me of those "jackies" that children love to make +with a bit of prism refracted on a wall. + +For several minutes I watched it, then, as suddenly, it was +extinguished, twitching back into darkness, and I turned and went +indoors. + + + + +III + +A MYSTERIOUS CALL + +I had prepared a stern lecture for Pete while I was shaving next +morning, but I was destined not to give it. While I was yet in my +room Mrs. Searle called me from below stairs. + +"You're wanted over to the Bend, doctor, for Mr. Lessing." + +I finished my dressing quickly and went downstairs. Coffee was on +the table. Mrs. Searle sniffed as she set a cup before me. + +"You'd best take something to eat before you start, doctor. It's a +two'n-a-half-mile drive. + +"Who is this Mr. Lessing? Did they say what it was for?" + +I fancied she looked at me rather curiously. + +"He has the new bungalow in the woods there. It's just before the +turnin' to Sliefer's dam." + +She spoke as though with a reluctance to name either the house or its +owner, and there flashed across my mind instantly a remembrance of +the first day Peter had driven me to the Bend, a few clustered +cottages, hardly enough to be called a village, situated some few +miles up the road. We had passed near the house then, just visible +through the trees, and I had asked him who lived there. He had +answered with the same reluctance I traced in Mrs. Searle's reply. +Evidently this Mr. Lessing had for some reason managed to make +himself unpopular in the district. + +Peter had the buggy ready, and I started off. The mare was fresher +than usual this morning, and covered the two and a half miles at a +brisk pace. + +The road ran level for some distance, then dipped to the little +hollow known as Dutchman's Hollow, where it crossed a shallow stream, +nearly dry in the summer. At the top of the hill, when you had +crossed the stream, was the turning to the new bungalow. + +The woods were emerald with early sunlight, and the dew hung heavily +on brambles and undergrowth. Birds were everywhere, and I saw a +Baltimore oriole, a rare flash of black and orange, fly across my +path as we neared the stream. Above the marshy space at the foot of +the hollow many dragon-flies were glancing, jewelled and wonderful, +and a small spotted turtle flopped from his stone in midstream at the +near crunch of wheels. + +I let the mare take her own pace climbing the hill. The morning was +too fine for hurry, even on an unknown errand. When we reached the +top a glint of unpainted timber through the trees led me to the left, +and a few yards up the cross-road I came out on a little clearing in +which the house stood. + +It was an ordinary one-story cottage, newly built, and as yet with no +attempt at garden or enclosure. What struck my eye immediately was a +curious sort of annex, standing near it. It was a rather high, +square building, windowless, but with one big skylight like an +artist's studio. Yet it had not the look of a studio, and the +skylight was so raised on four glass sides as to suggest a rude +attempt at an observatory. + +I tied the mare to a sapling in the shade, and went up to the house. +The front door stood open, and the interior showed the usual +living-room of a summer cottage. It was furnished scantily but +artistically. There were a few good rugs on the floor, a divan +heaped with cushions, a piano, and a set of low bookshelves +supporting a great bronze jar filled with wild-flowers. There were +few ornaments about, but those few were chiefly of Eastern origin and +good of their kind. It looked a room belonging to people of taste +rather than wealth. + +The divan was so placed in one corner, near a window screened by +drawn curtains, that it was a full moment before I realized that it +was occupied. A man lay there face downward among the tumbled +cushions, in what seemed the apathy of complete exhaustion. He was +clothed only in a suit of thin woolen pyjamas, that showed the +meagreness of his frame. He was so thin and slight that he seemed to +fill scarcely any space on the wide couch. He was evidently not +asleep, but he had not turned his head at my entrance--I could see +only a patch of rumpled dark hair against the pillows--and I crossed +the room and paused beside him. + +"Mr. Lessing...." + +He moved, looking at me with petulant, questioning eyes from a face +that showed every sign of physical and nervous exhaustion. + +"Who are you? I sent for Doctor Lennox." + +"My name is Haverill. I am taking Doctor Lennox's place for a few +months." + +"The devil you are!" He lifted his head, regarding me again intently +with those queer dark eyes, the eyes of a boy set in a prematurely +worn face. "Then Lennox has bolted!" + +"He has gone to Europe for the summer," I said, looking him full in +the face. "He told me he needed a change, and I gathered from his +looks he was pretty overworked. So I'm afraid you'll have to put up +with me for a while." + +"That's like old Lennox! I thought he'd do it some day." He slipped +back again among the cushions. "Where are you from?" + +I told him. He repeated the name of the hospital after me +mechanically. "I didn't know Lennox had gone when I sent over." + +The tone was ungracious, but it was more the ungraciousness of a +child than a rational being. I could see that the man's nerves were +fairly on the raw. Judging roughly, I should say that he had not +slept for several nights. I ignored the hint. + +"As I'm here," I said pleasantly, "I might as well look you over, +don't you think? What's the trouble?" + +For a full minute he did not answer. I fancied he was turning me +over very closely in his mind. + +"The usual thing," he said then. "Overwork--like Lennox's!" A grim +smile flashed momentarily on me. "I've been scratched up. That's +what I want you to see to." + +"An accident?" + +"You may call it a dog!" + +He turned, with a visible effort. Until now he had been lying almost +upon his face. The light came obscured from the window, but as I +bent forward I realized with a thrill of what extraordinary physical +endurance that slight body was capable. The right sleeve of his +pyjamas had been torn down--it seemed at one single rip--and the +edges of the flannel were caked and sodden with blood. As he threw +open the jacket with the other hand I saw two long parallel scratches +of the same depth running transversely across his chest. + +My first act was to draw the curtain aside. He lay there blinking at +me in the full light, watchful to see what change my face betrayed. + +"What you think, eh?" + +"I think," I said quietly, "that the sooner that dog is shot the +better." + +I made a movement to draw the jacket down, but at the touch of my +hand on his shoulder he winced for the first time. + +"I must have warm water," I said. "I suppose you are not alone here?" + +Almost as I spoke a woman came into the room by a second door; +evidently his wife. She was young, and her face would have been +noticeably beautiful but for its expressionlessness. She had deep +eyes, well-moulded features, and a very clear pallid complexion, but +her whole appearance suggested a slatternliness, evinced in the +tumbled silk wrapper, the carelessly combed-back hair. I think I +have never seen a woman, least of all in any crisis, look so utterly +stupid and bewildered. Her eyes were pink about the edges, where +powder had been hastily dabbed to hide recent tear-marks. I imagined +that her first impulse in any emergency would be to weep. + +"Have you warm water in the house?" + +"I'll get it." + +She disappeared toward the kitchen, and I followed her in. I wanted +for the moment to be out of range of the man on the couch, and I +thought it would give her a chance to say something to me herself of +what had happened. + +She took up a bowl haphazard from the dresser, put it down again and +took another, always with the scurrying half-frightened movement with +which she had entered the room; went finally through a doorway into +what appeared to be an outer kitchen to fetch the water. There I +heard another woman's voice, clear-cut, decisive, with what seemed an +undertone of forced cheerfulness to it. Scraps of a conversation +reached me while I waited. + +"They won't send it up. I'll have to go down later. And Scholl will +let us have bread if I fetch it. I thought I'd better bring three +now." + +"Mary, it's awful!" + +"Did that new man get here?" + +Mrs. Lessing's voice was discreetly dropped, drowned by the +accompanying splash of water from a kettle. But I heard the other +say: "Is he any good?" + +"Mary, sh-h!" + +She fluttered back, and I took the bowl of water from her hands. +Lessing was stretched on the divan just as I had left him, waiting my +return. There was no chair near, and I looked about me impatiently +for something on which to set the bowl, while the woman stood by in a +sort of helpless indecision. Just as I was about to put it on the +floor someone pushed Mrs. Lessing gently but promptly aside and came +forward. It was the girl whose voice I had heard in the kitchen, and +I saw in the second's glance I gave her that it was she whom I had +seen on the road the first morning I came down. + +"Give me the bowl," she said. "You can manage better if I hold it." + +I stripped Lessing's jacket off as gently as I could, sponging the +sleeve where it adhered to the torn flesh. He must have been lying +untended there for some considerable time before my arrival. When I +had laid bare his chest and shoulder to the light I set my lips to an +involuntary whistle. The man looked as if he had been fighting with +some wild animal. No dog had made those wounds. They were not +bites; they were long raking cuts, as if the flesh had been torn by +heavy blunt-pointed claws. A bear might have done it, but there was +no sign of bruising or tooth-prints. The scratch on the shoulder was +a good half-inch deep in one place--it nearly laid bare the bone. + +He had bled freely; the jacket sleeve was soaked and stiff. I set to +work to cleanse the blood from his chest, and as I did so I saw other +wounds of the same order, some old cicatrices, others newly healed +scars of perhaps a month old, but none so deep as the present ones. +I glanced sharply at the man's hands. They were well kept, the +fingers stained a little with acids as though in photography, the +nails smooth and closely trimmed. + +The scratches were ugly. I had slipped an emergency case of tabloids +into my pocket on starting, and asking for fresh water, I dissolved +two in it. The girl watched me steadily, holding the bowl of +solution while I cleansed the cuts carefully, bit by bit, and I +fancied that in her presence Lessing was at particular pains not to +flinch. The man's endurance was extraordinary. I had noticed +something else on his arm, but of that I did not immediately speak. + +"You want iodoform?" said the girl. "There is some in the house." + +She fetched it, with diachylon and a roll of sterilized gauze such as +is used in hospitals, from the drawer of a Japanese cabinet. I +dressed the cuts--it took some little time--and helped him into the +clean shirt she brought me. When I straightened my back at last we +were alone. + +"Do you mind," said Lessing, "going to the cabinet there and getting +me a bottle that's in the top left-hand cupboard? There's a glass +with it." + +I found both. I drew the glass stopper from the bottle and smelled +it. It contained a familiar cardiac stimulant. + +"It's all right. It's the stuff Lennox gave me." + +I poured him a dose and he drank it. Then he dropped back on the +cushions again, watching me. I drew a chair up, but on second +thought remained standing. + +"Well, Mr. Lessing," I said, "I don't know that I'm able to do +anything more for you under the present circumstances. If you feel +like wanting me you know where to send." + +"What are you in a hurry for?" + +"I am in no hurry." + +"Then sit down." + +"If you think there is anything to be gained." + +I sat down. I had dealt with his type before, and I waited. + +"Well?" he said. + +"You must know, my good fellow, that there's no use calling a medical +man in to tell this kind of nonsense! I'm not a fool." + +"Then there," he answered, "you differ most charmingly from old +Lennox!" + +I could no more be angry with him than with a sick child. + +"No dog made these scratches!" + +"I said you might call it a dog," he reminded me. + +"I might call it an ourang-outang and be nearer the mark! Am I to +conclude that you keep a menagerie in your house, Mr. Lessing?" + +"Suppose I told you I did it myself?" + +"I should call you a liar," I said. "I have seen your hands." + +"Old Lennox swore I did. I told you he was a fool." + +"We'll drop the scratches," I said, walking to the window. "I don't +know that it really matters if you choose to tell me they were done +by a tame mud-turtle in the back yard. But one or two things you'll +have to stop if I'm looking after you." + +"Such as?" + +"You want sleep, man! You look as if you hadn't seen bed for a week." + +"I sleep in the daytime. I have to work at night." + +"What--photography?" + +"Chemistry ... of sorts." + +"Chemistry doesn't have to be done at night, of necessity," I +answered. "You're overworked and you're using yourself up. You know +you've hardly a whole nerve left in your body at this moment." + +"I've plenty in my shoulder," he returned drily, and I smiled +involuntarily as our eyes met. There was a fascination in the man, +despite his eccentricity, his absurd persistence in what seemed to be +a tissue of childish and reasonless lies, to which I held no clue. + +"That won't hurt you long. I'll look in again tomorrow." I wheeled +on him abruptly, of purpose. "How long have you been taking morphia?" + +I expected denial. Instead his eyes merely narrowed, appreciatively. + +"A year, more or less. I take it when I can't sleep." + +"Lately?" + +"Not for several weeks." + +"Yes, you have," I thought. Aloud I said: "I'll make you up +something else, for a change. Can you sleep now?" + +"I'll have a try." + +"Better get to bed." + +"I sleep better here," he said, and without more ado turned over with +his face to the wall. I waited a moment, but he took no further +notice of my presence, and I went out. + +The girl who had helped me with the dressing was outside, feeding +sugar to the mare. The two seemed old friends. I saw, as I drew +near, that she bore a strong resemblance to Lessing himself, +sufficient to proclaim her his sister. She had the same deep hazel +eyes, but her hair was lighter; it showed a bronze glint as she stood +bare-headed in the sunshine. It would have been an attractive face +but for a look of cynicism, almost a hardness, in the lines of her +mouth. I was glad that it was she I encountered instead of Mrs. +Lessing. Here was at least one practical person in this puzzling +household. + +She turned as I came near, but without moving. + +"Your brother will do all right," I said without preamble. "Keep him +quiet today, and if possible make him sleep. He wants rest badly." + +She nodded, brushing the crumbs of sugar from her hands. + +"How long has this been going on?" + +"The not sleeping?" She looked at me sharply. "About four or five +nights." + +"I thought so. Can't you make him?" + +She looked at me almost contemptuously, as though wondering that my +interview with Lessing had taught me so little. "Does he look as if +I could?" + +"You can do it if anyone can," I said. "I shall be back tomorrow. +If by any chance I am wanted..." + +"I'll come and fetch you," she said. + +"Good." I turned to unfasten the mare, then paused. "You have a dog +here, I think. May I see it?" + +For a moment she seemed about to hesitate. "If you like," she said +then. + +I followed her round to the side of the house. A small sort of +tool-shed stood not far from the odd building I had noticed, and +which I saw now was not an annex, but separate from the house. The +door of the shed was closed, and from within a whining and scratching +greeted our approach. Without a word she turned the key and threw +open the door. + +A magnificent orange setter rushed out nearly knocking her down. +There was nothing savage in his demeanor; he licked her hands and +face and even tried to include me in the demonstration, but what +caught my attention was his inexplicable behavior the next moment. +He bounded straight toward the big outbuilding, but within a few +paces of it he stopped, whining and sniffing, his ears laid back, his +body trailed near to the ground, as though in some abject fear. +Whining still, he dragged himself back to our feet and crouched +there, trembling. Miss Lessing's voice broke the silence. + +"Do you advise," she said, "that he should be destroyed as dangerous?" + +"I think," I replied, "that is hardly necessary, at present. What's +the matter with him?" + +Her lip curled a little as she looked at me. She shrugged her +shoulders. + +"He is frightened. Do you believe in the instinct of dogs, Doctor +Haverill?" + +"What is that building used for?" I asked curtly. + +"It is my brother's laboratory." + +"Then what in heaven's name----?" I checked the exclamation on my +lips. She was looking at me as her brother had done, but she seemed, +at all events, to make up her mind more quickly. "Come with me," she +said quietly. + +We walked to the building. There was a door at the side fitted with +a Yale lock, but it stood slightly ajar. She pushed it open. The +interior consisted of one single room, that seemed from its fittings +half laboratory, half workshop. There were shelves around, +containing bottles, chemical apparatus, a few books stacked together. +A long table, littered with tubes and glasses, stood almost directly +under the skylight. One corner of the room, to the right of the +table, was screened off to form a dark-room, with the ordinary square +of red glazed fabric let into the door. + +I looked around the place with curiosity. There was nothing here to +account for the dog's behavior. The contents of the table at one end +were confused and overthrown, and a strip of cocoa matting, which had +evidently lain under or near the table, had been rolled and flung in +one corner. The boards were noticeably cleaner where it had been +lying, and near the edge of this clean space there was a stain, +smudged as though purposely by someone's foot, but to my eyes an +obvious blood-stain. + +Directly under the skylight, which was some four feet square, was the +apparatus that for the moment puzzled me. It was mounted on a high +stand that brought it near to the glass, and it looked like an +acetylene lamp with very powerful concave reflectors; the kind of +reflector, on a smaller scale, that is used in some lighthouses. The +size of the lamp was quite outside the requirements of the room for +ordinary lighting purposes, and the reflector seemed planned to throw +the light outside the building, and in any desired direction. As I +looked at it there flashed across my mind the recollection of the +curious sort of searchlight I had seen the night before from my +porch. Here was the solution of it, but I was puzzled to imagine +what Lessing could be doing with an apparatus of this kind in such a +place. + +I turned to Miss Lessing. + +"Was it here that your brother spent last evening?" + +"Yes. He came out here about nine o'clock, after dinner. He often +works late, and we never sit up for him. My sister-in-law went to +bed soon after; she had one of her bad headaches that she has been +subject to for the last eighteen months. I sleep in the room next to +hers, and I went to bed about eleven. I am an early riser, as a +rule, and when I came out of my room this morning I met my brother +just coming into the house." She paused, and I could see that she +was struggling with the recollection. "He wouldn't let me touch him, +and he only said something about wanting to sleep, and that I should +send Doctor Lennox up to him. I left him in the sitting-room and +went straight off." + +"Cycled?" + +"No, walked. I have no cycle here. My brother doesn't like me using +one. If I had, it would have saved time. I came through the woods." + +"You were quick, anyway," I said approvingly. "Now listen, Miss +Lessing. Your brother has had a severe shock; of what sort I know no +more than you. He will probably tell us in his own time. For the +present, I don't want him worried in any way. I shall come again +tomorrow. If I may advise you, I would lock this place and keep the +key until he asks you for it. Have you touched anything in the room +since this morning?" + +"No. It is as he left it." + +Then Lessing himself had removed the tell-tale carpet. I thought a +moment. + +"Was your brother wearing pyjamas when he went out last evening?" + +"He changed into them after dinner, I remember. It is hot in here of +an evening, and he nearly always wears them to work in." + +"Did you hear any noise last night?" + +"No." She hesitated a moment. "My sister-in-law was very restless +last night, and she was talking in her sleep. She seemed to be in +pain, so I went in to her, but she was sound asleep and I went back +to bed. I heard nothing outside." + +"Where was the dog?" + +"Shut up. We used to have him loose, but he's sometimes noisy at +night, and lately my brother has taken a fancy to have him shut up." + +"It doesn't seem likely that he would trouble him here," I said. + +She bit her lip. + +"Doctor Haverill, what is it?" + +"My dear young lady," I said, "I can know nothing until your brother +is able to give us some account." I had almost said "chooses," but I +changed the word on a look at her face. "After all," I said lightly, +"you must remember I am here only as a doctor, and a stranger at +that!" + +I turned back to where the mare was waiting, and she followed me, +locking the door behind her. + +"I shall be at the house all day, if I'm wanted, but I don't think I +shall be. Meantime, you'll remember what I've told you. Your +brother will have to make up sleep before he can tell us anything at +all." + +She seemed to take it quite as a matter of course that I should be +giving my directions to her instead of Mrs. Lessing. It was as if +she took the responsible place instinctively in the household. I +climbed into the buggy, turning the mare around, and she nodded a +good-bye to me. My last glimpse, as I left the house, was of her +slim bare-headed figure, wistful in its very air of self-reliance, +standing there in the sunshine with the setter by her side. + + + + +IV + +DUTCHMAN'S HILL + +To say the thing puzzled me would be to put it lightly enough. For +the rest of the day my thoughts kept turning to that enigmatic +household at the Bend. The most puzzling point of all, to my mind, +was why Lennox, in speaking of the people about, had not so much as +mentioned Lessing's name. Here was a patient to whom he had, as I +surmised, been called once before at least on the same mysterious +errand as my own that morning, with whom he was more or less on terms +of intimacy, and who must have provided almost his sole educated +companionship in the village, and yet he had not seen fit so much as +to touch upon Lessing's existence in my talk with him. Considering +the words with which my own advent had been that morning greeted, I +would have given much to be able to corner Lennox just then for ten +minutes' conversation. + +I had heard nothing from him so far, and the following morning, on +the chance of there being a letter, I drove down to the village after +breakfast. As I entered the post office Miss Lessing was just coming +out. She had a brown-paper parcel--an obvious butcher's parcel--in +her hand, together with a couple of mail packets, and as I stood +aside to let her pass she stopped to exchange a few words with me. +Her brother was better, she said; he looked forward to seeing me that +afternoon. We chatted a moment, and when she turned to go I said +naturally: + +"You might let me give you a lift up the road. I'm going straight +back." + +She smiled. "I'm used to walking, thanks all the same! Besides, +there's a short cut through the woods I've found. It takes off +nearly half the distance." + +"You don't mind the woods alone?" + +"I've got the dog with me." + +I watched her straight slim little figure up the street, the dog +following at her heels, and turned into the post office. The clerk +had grown familiar during our daily intercourse. He handed me two +letters with a ready grin--Lennox's handwriting was not among +them--then leaned his elbows on the shabby counter and spat +reflectively into the space below. + +"Mr. Lessing had another attack, ain't he?" + +"What do you mean," I said curtly. + +"I heer'd you was called over thar, yesterday. Reckon you'll have +enough to do if you take on with all the crazy folks round here." + +I looked at him hard. + +"Oh, I ain't got nothing special against Mr. Lessing. He's a +pleasant-spoken chap, all I've seen of him. On'y when a man gits to +meddlin' with things it ain't no person's business to meddle with +he's liable to git called crazy--ef not worse. I ain't holdin' with +what people say when they get to talkin'--no sir! I got enough to do +tendin' my own business. But there's plenty won't go near Mr. +Lessing's place after dark nor no other time, an' if you was to +listen to them I reckon they got their reasons. They say his wife's +as crazy as he is. Seems when he ain't traipsin' round the woods all +hours o' the night he's shut up there in that stoodio place doin' his +vivisectin'----" + +"_What?_" + +I laughed in spite of myself. Mr. Johnson looked sulky. + +"Ain't that what they call it? I ain't no doctor." + +"Mr. Lessing happens to be a student of chemistry, not a medical +student, so if anyone's been trying to get round you with bogy tales +they're talking nonsense. I'm surprised at a man of your education, +Mr. Johnson, listening to such absurdities!" + +"Then what does he shut himself up for, with a lamp you can see two +miles off, unless he's up to suthin' he don't want folks to know?" + +"Probably because he doesn't want a pack of ignoramuses meddling with +his affairs." + +"Well, that's what they say, and there's folks as believes it," he +said sullenly. "An' as fur his walkin' in the woods, I ain't tellin' +you anything but what's so. He was seen the same night as Jake +Menning got killed goin' down Dutchman's Hill. It was Jakey's +half-brother as seen him, an' Aaron ain't one to be tellin' lies. +No, sir! An' if Doctor Lennox was here now he would tell you the +same, for he was called out to see a sick child at the Bend that same +night and it was him as found Jake Menning there the next mornin'." + +"Do you know you're saying things you might get into trouble over?" I +asked sternly. + +"Oh, I ain't sayin' he had no hand in it," he returned promptly. +"Everyone knows Jakey got killed through bein' too drunk to look whar +he was goin'!" + +I pushed a quarter over to him. + +"Well, give me some stamps, Mr. Johnson. If you take my advice you +won't pay quite so much attention to idle gossip." + +I drove home, thinking. Lennox, or someone, had been chattering; +that was clear. How far I had no means at present of knowing, for I +was not going to pursue any further conversation with Johnson, ready +as he was. A doctor who gives himself to gossip is no better than an +old hen. I felt a sharp contempt for Lennox that overrode whatever +interest I might once have had for him. If he had got himself into +any tangle down here he deserved it thoroughly. + +A light covered wagon, such as hucksters use, was outside the gate +when I got back, and a man, who had evidently been bargaining with +Mrs. Searle at the back door, came round and climbed into it. I had +to pull the mare up to one side to give him room to drive off, and as +I waited I happened to notice him rather closely, the more so as he +gave me a civil but obvious scrutiny himself as he climbed over the +wagon-wheel. He was a man of about forty, in a tightly buttoned coat +of greasy black oilskin and a peaked cap, which might have belonged +earlier in its career to a seafaring man, pulled down over his +forehead. His face, with unpleasantly close-set eyes, was scarred by +smallpox, and apart from the repugnance which this disfigurement +always inspires more or less, I think I have seldom seen a +countenance which impressed me more disagreeably. He was a man whom +I would have ordered off my own premises anywhere at first sight, and +I replied with a curt nod to his over-subservient greeting. + +I left the mare in the yard and went into the parlor. Mrs. Searle +had evidently been interrupted in her morning tidying, and she came +back, duster in hand, as I stood there. I had enough experience to +know her for a woman who did not give herself to gossip, though she +probably knew all that was afoot, by the curious intuitive sense so +highly developed in all women of her class. With her I would be +perfectly safe in any inquiries I chose to make. + +She apologized for her intrusion and set about completing her tour of +the furniture, with noiseless briskness. + +"I see you've been down to the village, sir," she said after a +moment. "I was going to ask whether you'd order some more coal up +for tomorrow, from Harkness's. It's most finished." + +"I'll send Pete this afternoon. He can walk in. By the way, Mrs. +Searle, what was this story about Jake Menning? I just heard +something of it in the village today." + +"Jake Menning..." She paused in her dusting, setting back a vase +carefully on the mantelshelf. "I suppose you'd have heard of it, +sir. He was killed last March, goin' down Dutchman's Hill. There +isn't much water now, but it's generally deep there, long after the +spring rains. Some did say it was done a-purpose, but the most of +'em thinks he jest had a fit an' fell in. Doctor Lennox found him, +about six o'clock in the mornin', driving back from a night call. He +was lyin' jest at the foot of the hollow, where them planks begin, +with his face in the water. It wasn't deep enough to drown anyone +ordinarily, an' that's why they thought it was a seizure. + +"There was two half-brothers, Jake an' Aaron, both livin' over near +the Bend. Aaron's took the whole business over now. Jake was always +kind o' queer; they called him crazy sometimes, round the village. +They was as like as two peas, which was queer, seein' they was on'y +half related, so to speak. Down to the smallpox scars an' all. +They'd both took the smallpox, but Jake took it worse, and they said +that was what affected his brain some. You couldn't tell 'em apart, +on'y for Aaron's stutterin'. + +"Aaron was the best of the two. He's a good chapel member, and he's +done a lot better in the business since Jakey's out of it. I heard +they used to quarrel a lot in Jake's lifetime. Aaron's savin', and a +bit close with his money too, and I recon he kep' Jake under some. +He was an awful ill-lookin' man, Jake Menning--not that I like to say +wrong of the dead, but I know a bad-lookin' man when I see one, an' +Jake was that, for all his craziness. There weren't anyone liked him +much, so they said he was harmless as a child, and right smart in +business, an' now they ain't content with his being dead but they +must get to startin' nonsense about his walking---excuse me +mentionin' any such silly talk to you, sir!" + +"Walking?" I stared. + +"What they call it, sir," she explained apologetically. "You see," +she went on, taking up her duster again, "Dutchman's Hill always did +have a bad name, account of a pedlar bein' drowned there years ago, +and now with this other business they try to make out the place is +haunted again.. They don't seem to know rightly whether it's Crazy +Jake or the pedlar I told you of, but there's quite a lot of folks +now won't go nigh the place after dark, no more'n if it had the +plague." + +"So that's what all this nonsense has been about!" I said, a light +beginning to dawn on me. "I suppose Pete is right in it all?" + +"Pete is like all the niggers, sir. They ain't happy unless they've +got some sort of a ha'nt to tell about. Not that the other folks +here is any better, an' I will say that of 'em. I never met such a +gossipin' set in my life till I come here!" + +Mrs. Searle herself was originally from New England, and eight years' +residence here had not altered her original opinion of the people. +For this reason, if for none other, I knew that she kept herself very +sternly aloof from the minor scandal-making of the place. + +"I suppose there was an inquest on this man?" + +"Oh, yes, sir. They brought it in accidental causes, an' Doctor +Lennox seemed to think the man died of heart-failure, an' he must +have been dead before he fell in. Anyway it wasn't drownin', simple. +I don't know. It was Aaron had heart-weakness in the family, as I +heard, so it was queer Jake bein' the one took off that way!" + +I rose. + +"Well, I suppose the people here have precious little to gossip +about, and they like to make a mystery of whatever does happen!" + +"That's about as I take it, sir." She moved toward the door. "An' +now I think, it was funny your asking me about Jake Menning, just +this moment. That was Aaron as came round to the back door a while +ago, as you drove up. He wanted to know if we'd like any chickens, +so I took one for Sunday, seen' he only gets round once a fortnight +now he has the whole business to attend to. I don't know whether +it's thinkin' over it, but it seems to me he's getting to look more +like Jakey every day. If it wer'n't for his stutterin' I could take +him for a ghost myself!" + +So that was Aaron Menning. Well, he might be a good chapel member, +but he had a face that would hang him if my impressions went for +anything. All the same, this put me no nearer to clearing up the +mystery at the Bend, which was what interested me at the moment. +Jake Menning and the alleged ghost of Dutchman's Hill were ordinary +enough features in a village drama, but they could have no direct +bearing on the problem that occupied my mind. + +After lunch I told Peter to put the mare in. He lingered about the +buggy when I came out, making unnecessary adjustments to the harness. +I could see he was anxious to learn the outcome of yesterday's visit, +and where I was going now. + +"Is yoh gwine by de village, doctah?" he asked finally, with the air +of one with a commission to request. + +"No, I'm going to the Bend. There is no need for you to drive me," I +added as I took the reins up. + +I could have sworn the old sinner looked relieved as he went back to +the coach-house. When I reached the bungalow I found Lessing himself +on the porch. As he rose to greet me I saw that he was taller than I +had thought; there was a certain wiry strength about him when he +stood upright. What amazed me was the man's extraordinary endurance +and resiliency; his face showed scarcely a sign of the exhaustion of +yesterday. He was dressed in corduroy trousers and a soft silk +shirt, under which the outline of the bandaging was visible as he +moved. + +"Well, how are you?" I asked as we shook hands. + +"All right. Come into the house--or shall we stay here?" + +"I'll have a look at you first." I followed him into the room. "A +bit stiff?" + +"Nothing much." + +"Sleep?" + +"Like a log." + +I need hardly have asked him. He stripped up his shirt and I made a +brief readjustment of the dressings. The wounds were going on all +right. He must have had a magnificent constitution despite his +slightness of build. We sat down on the divan, and Lessing produced +a box of cigarettes. + +There was a small wooden table near the window, littered with +test-tubes and odds and ends, and I nodded toward it. + +"Been busy?" + +"I was just working out something. I have a sort of laboratory +fitted outside, though. I had it built." + +"That sort of studio place?" + +"It's just like a workshop--where I muddle occasionally! I'll show +you sometime, if you like." + +"I should be delighted." + +"My experiments have, unfortunately, given rather a bad name to the +place. They had a bad effect on old Lennox, too. I believe I was +too progressive for him. You wouldn't expect that from a medical +man, would you? Did you know Lennox very well?" + +He knocked the ash off his cigarette, waiting for my reply. If he +was guarded, so was I. + +"I knew him at the University, a good while ago. Since then I had +not seen him till the other day." + +"He's a queer old bird! I used to tell him he made the ideal country +practitioner. It made him mad because it was so exactly true. We +used to disagree frightfully, you know. It's the only relaxation in +a place like this. I shall miss Lennox...." + +It struck me he was trying, in a casual way, to find out how far +Lennox had spoken of him to me, and whether we had been at any time +since his departure in correspondence. + +"Lennox has quaint theories," he went on, leaning back against the +cushions. "One of them is that nothing exists outside the +pharmacopÅ“ia and Burton's 'North American Fauna.' We used to +argue it at great length. I don't believe he's convinced yet." + +"He was never an easy man to convince." + +"So? It's habit that survives. How do you like it down here, by the +way?" + +"Oh, I'm putting in a good time," I smiled. "I fish a little, tramp +a little. There ought to be good shooting in these woods by and by." + +"They are interesting," said Lessing drily. + +"Have you been here long?" I asked. + +"Over a year." He rose and went into the kitchen, whence he returned +a moment later, saying: "I thought I heard my wife there. We might +as well have some tea." + +It was Miss Lessing who brought the tea in, a few minutes later. She +greeted me pleasantly, setting the tray down on the little table I +pulled forward for her. + +"Kate is lying down for a while," she said to her brother. "She has +a headache. Do you take sugar, Doctor Haverill?" + +I sat chatting there for nearly an hour. Lessing seemed at all +events disposed to be friendly. All the while I was trying to +reconcile this man who sat talking boyishly on trivial subjects with +the outstretched figure I had seen twenty-four hours ago. If I had +felt any resentment for his treatment of me yesterday it would have +vanished utterly, and his complete absence of restraint now showed +me, if I had needed it, how all memory of that mood had changed with +his physical condition. + +When I rose to go it was under promise to dine with them the +following week. I fancied that Miss Lessing glanced hesitatingly at +her brother before she seconded his invitation. It might have been +only fancy; she was certainly cordial enough as we shook hands. + +"Next Thursday, then," Lessing called after me from the doorway. I +drove home no less mystified than before. + + + + +V + +THE DEAD CYCLIST + +Lennox sent me a note from Queenstown. I wondered, reading the brief +cheerful account of his crossing, if he guessed how much I would give +to have him cornered for a half-hour's interview. That he could +throw considerable light on the puzzle I did not doubt, any more than +that he had promptly put the ocean between us with a view to avoiding +the very question I wanted to put to him. Anyway he was securely out +of reach, and there was no use in wasting speculation. + +My motor-cycle had arrived some time ago, but up to now I had not +made use of it. It was housed in the carriage-shed, to Peter's great +curiosity. Once I had caught him meddling with it surreptitiously, +and my lecture, garnished with many lies as to what would happen to +him if he pursued investigations, wrought the desired effect on his +superstitious mind. Devils offered to Peter the most natural +explanation for anything he failed to understand. Having a free +morning, it occurred to me to put the engine in order, and Peter, +cleaning harness nearby, watched my proceedings with distrustful +curiosity. + +"Is yoh gwine _ride_ dat 'ar thing, doctah?" he asked me. + +"Sure!" I stood up, wiping my grimed hands on a piece of cotton +waste. "Don't you think it's a likely thing to scare the ha'nts +with, Pete?" + +"Yoh talk er de ha'nts, doctah, 'cause yoh ain' done _seen_ 'em. +When yoh's done seen 'em, doctah, I raikon yose gwine talk er suthin' +eke." + +"If I meet one on this, Pete, it'll give him such fits he won't do +any han'ting for a week. Give me that monkey-wrench." + +He eyed me gloomily. + +"Dat ar thing's got a debbil in 'um sure, an' yoh ain' git no better +er one debbil by mixin' 'um up wid anuffer--no, _sah_!" + +"Peter," I said, "you are too conservative." + +"I d'know dat. I d'know dat! De debbil's de dibbil, an' dar ain' no +good yet come er mixin' up wid him. 'Tain' in de Bible nor 'tain' in +nature, an' I ain' holdin' wid no such dealin's." + +"Well, Pete, I'm going to back my devil against your rabbit's foot, +anyhow." + +Pete looked suspicious. + +"Who's been talkin' 'bout rabbit's foots, doctah?" + +"No one. Turn your pockets out, Pete!" + +His hand clapped involuntarily to the side of his trousers. + +"I got ter put dat harness away, an' I ain' got the time t' be +hindered in! Sholy to Gawd, doctah, yoh ain' s'pose _I_ carry no +trash like that!" + +He straightened himself with dignity, hanging the harness up on its +pegs. I finished my job and went into the surgery. I had written to +the city for the drug I wanted for Lessing. It arrived yesterday, +and I had made up the powders. They were lying on the desk with a +rubber band about them, and the packet caught my eye as I came in. I +called to Pete. + +"I want you to take a prescription over to Mr. Lessing," I said. +"You can take the buckboard and bring back that sack of feed from +Sliefer's at the same time." + +I held the packet out to him. He eyed first it, then me. + +"Well?" I said impatiently. + +"I'se gwine, I'se gwine. I was thinkin' on'y dis mawnin' how dat +feed done oughter be fetched. Yessir, I was sayin' dat out in de +car'ge-house. It done oughter be fetched _today_." + +"It'll be right on your road after you leave Mr. Lessing's." + +"Yessir, dat so! On'y dat packet, doctah ... I was jest considerin' +dat packet. Ef I was to put dat packet in de buckboard longer de +feed sack I'd be right scared 'er losing it. It don't seem to me, +doctah, dat 'ar packet gwine t' be very safe dat way." + +"But you've got a pocket, you old idiot!" + +"Yessir, I done got pockets. I was on'y jest a-studyin', doctah. I +don' recommend pockets, not when a pusson's got a commission to 'tend +to. When a pusson puts suthin' in his pocket, it happens sometime +dat a pusson's gwine _forget_ it." + +"If it happens to you," I assured him, "I'll find a way of operating +on your memory, so you'd better be careful!" + +He took the packet without more ado and went off to get the buckboard +ready. It was too fine a day to waste about the house, and I had it +in mind to take the cycle out for a spin. Telling Mrs. Searle I +would probably be away for lunch, I got into my cycling suit and set +off. + +I followed the road for some distance past the Bend, and then +branched off to the right, joining the Pike. The machine was in good +running order, and I did some twenty miles before I slowed up finally +at a little village with the hope of getting something to eat. + +There was the usual hotel and saloon combined, with its array of +spruce bushes in tubs before the entrance. I leaned my cycle against +the porch and went in to interview the landlord about a meal. + +Dinner was by luck just ready. I cleaned off some of the grime of my +ride and wandered into the commercial room, which was garnished with +horsehair furniture, a mildewed engraving of Washington, and two +plates of sticky fly-paper, buzzing and noxious, set out on the +soiled tablecloth. There was one other midday guest, a young man in +a gray suit who sat watching the struggles of the latest addition to +the fly-paper colony while he waited for dinner. I placed him +immediately as a newspaper man, and the first dozen words we +exchanged, as I took my place opposite to him at the table, proved me +right. He had been sent down on the trial of one of those dull and +elusive scandals which serve to lighten the papers during the dead +season, and had to put in two hours' waiting for his train back to +the city. + +He had a considerable fund of anecdote which needed only the barest +encouragement to set going, and he transferred his interest from the +fly-paper to myself with complimentary promptitude. He had a trick +of raising his voice a full three tones at the beginning of each +sentence, and as his dissertations were lengthy I found myself +speculating at to what new and rasping height his voice might next +reach. + +There was a week-old copy of a local paper lying on the table, and in +a pause of the meal he pushed it over to me. + +"There's a thing that might interest you, being a cyclist," he said. +"What do you make of that kind of an accident?" + +I read the paragraph he pointed out. It was the account of an +inquest held on the body of a young man identified as one George +Powell, salesman in a Philadelphia dry-goods store. He had been +found on a stretch of road a few miles beyond Coopersville by a +farmer taking an early load of milk to the Coopersville creamery. +The handle-bars and front part of his wheel, near by, were damaged, +and the broken lamp was picked up a few yards further on. The man +was dead, but the curious part, which had evidently struck my +acquaintance also, was that there were no injuries found on the body +except a single diagonal scratch across the face, which was of +sufficient depth to have destroyed one eye and to lay the entire +cheek open. This in itself had not produced death, and the coroner's +autopsy had revealed no symptom of concussion. The medical officer's +verdict had been death from heart failure. + +The injuries suggested attack, but there had been no robbery, and +though the man's clothing was torn his pockets were apparently +untouched. They contained thirty-five dollars in notes, in a +pocket-book, some small change, and the papers that had led to his +identification. + +"Well?" said my acquaintance. + +"It looks queer." + +He laid a finger on the paragraph. + +"You see the body was picked up fifteen yards from the edge of the +wood. If anyone had laid for him, they'd have laid right in the +woods, where there was cover. But whatever hit him, it hit him +before he reached there." + +"He might have run into something." + +"As what?" + +"I don't know." And there struck me instantly the thought that my +companion put into words. "If you run into anything on a bicycle, at +full speed, it doesn't generally happen that the handle-bars get the +worst injury. You see that the front wheel was not much broken. And +he was riding toward the woods, and it's going to take a pretty +phenomenal shock to throw a man and his bicycle fifteen yards +backwards. I'll tell you another thing. I happen to know that +stretch of road, because I spent part of last summer near there, with +some people. It's a level stretch, cleared both sides, and there +isn't anything larger than a stone to run into." + +I waited, wondering what he was driving at. He chose a toothpick +from the holder and began to employ it, leisurely. + +"You'd reckon those things would strike the jury, wouldn't you? But +they're so dam' simple down here that they're content to come up +against facts like that, and they say: Well, here's a man got killed +and we don't know what hit him. Guess we'll let it go at +misadventure and go get a drink!' That's their mental attitude, and +there isn't anything going to shake them out of it." + +"What's your theory?" I asked. + +He revolved the toothpick meditatively. + +"If I knew, I guess I'd be up against a story that would make every +newspaper in the country sit up. There's something queer there, and +I'll tell you why, and you'll see just how enterprising these country +juries are. Last April"--he raised his voice again, giving the +toothpick an extra twirl in emphasis--"precisely the same thing +happened to another man, not twelve miles from where this was. He +was killed under much about the same circumstances, and the jury then +returned the same old verdict, with a caution about the dangers of +scorching. I happen to know, because I was down there on some story +the time the thing occurred. I saw the man." He paused, and without +knowing why I felt my pulses quicken suddenly in anticipation. "He +had marks on his body that a wild-cat couldn't have made! He was +picked up at the side of the path, among some stiff under-brush, so +of course they said the fall did it. I tell you he was ripped, like +I've seen a dog's face ripped by a badger. I've seen murder cases +and I've seen accidents, but I've never seen the precise accident +that would leave that kind of marks." + +"You think it was murder?" + +"The man wasn't murdered. He hit his head against a stone and died +of concussion that time, right enough. But it was near enough to +murder, if you assume an assailant who'd strap two-inch steel claws +on to his hands." He laughed. "It's an original outfit! But that's +what I'm asking _you_? What's the animal that goes round in these +woods that's strong enough to wreck the steel tubing of a bicycle, +that attacks with its claws and not with its teeth, and that's quick +enough to knock a man down without the chance of a struggle?" + +"There were no traces?" + +"None. Not a single footprint." + +All the while he spoke there had been before my mind the picture of +Lessing--Lessing with those inexplicable scratches on his chest. +Whatever had attacked these two had attacked Lessing also; that I +would swear to. I was conscious that the young man was watching me +rather closely. + +"Heard something of this before, have you?" + +"No. It interests me. But I think you're on a wrong tack." + +"How?" + +"Man alive, you don't suppose there could conceivably be any animal +of that kind loose in the country without people knowing it! Someone +would have seen it." + +"I guess two people did see it," he suggested. + +"If anything escaped from a menagerie there'd be a hue and cry +raised. The woods around here couldn't give cover to any animal of +that size and ferocity for three months without some track of it +being found." + +He said: "How about the murders in the Rue Morgue?" + +"Those scratches weren't made by a monkey!" + +I was unguarded. He looked up sharply. + +"You didn't see them." + +"You have described them," I reminded him. "Besides, an ape's +instinct is to strangle." + +"Not necessarily." + +"Put the first down as a murder. The second might not have had any +connection. There is nearly three months between. The medical +officer suggested himself that the injuries might have been caused by +falling on the broken bicycle framework." + +"Medical officers aren't infallible. They've got to say something." + +I laughed. "Well, stick to your escaped simian theory! If a third +case turns up we'll see who's right." + +I rose, paid my bill and went out, leaving him, I have no doubt, with +the impression that I was a particularly hidebound idiot. But I had +my own reasons for making no further contribution to his data. I +would see this thing through without any assistance from a too +enterprising press. + + + + +VI + +A BOYCOTTED HOUSEHOLD + +Thursday evening found me at the Lessing's bungalow. Mrs. Lessing +was in evidence this time, in a soft black gown that accentuated the +pallor of her face. The evening did not correct my first impressions +of her. She shook hands limply, contributed a few remarks about the +weather, and then subsided on the couch in silence. Dinner was laid +on a small round table near the window, and Mary Lessing came in from +the kitchen with uprolled sleeves and a big apron tied about her. + +"We do our own chores here, Doctor Haverill," she said. "Do you want +to make yourself useful?" + +I rose promptly. Lessing had not yet appeared and my _tête-à -tête_ +with his wife was not exhilarating. I followed her out into the +kitchen, where she gave me a can-opener and a box of sardines. + +"Turn those out for me, please. And if you have any hygienic +aversion to canned goods, smother it. We live on them here." + +"You find it far from the village?" + +She smiled, quizzically. "A good way. Besides, the tradespeople +here aren't exactly genial. So we subsist on boxes from the city. +It gives you all the real pleasure of a desert island without the +risks. Put them on that plate, will you? You see, by the time the +box arrives and gets hauled up from the station we've generally +forgotten what we ordered, so there's all the excitement of discovery +as well. This time it was olives. Do you realize the joy of +unexpected olives in the wilderness?" + +"I'm going to." + +"That's the right spirit! Living in the country teaches one a +becoming humility. There are more things to open. Perhaps it was a +mistake to ask you out here, but in any case I could hardly have +palmed off these peaches as grown in our own garden, because we +haven't got one." + +She was standing at the table, drying crisp salad on a white cloth. +The position showed me only her profile, with a little wave of bronze +hair escaping near one ear. "Do you think gardening is worth the +trouble?" + +"When things like this grow in every department store? Perhaps not. +Good heavens, Doctor Haverhill, but you must _wash_ that can-opener! +Give it to me!" + +I gazed at the jagged gash already achieved in the peach-can. + +"Don't tell anyone and they won't taste it!" + +"I thought bachelors knew how to do everything." + +"Sardines and peaches go excellently together," I maintained. "They +call it _salade de fruits poissonnés_." + +Lessing lounged in. + +"I admire the way Mary sets you to work," he said. "She has a talent +for being industrious by proxy. Here----" He pulled a parcel out of +his pocket "I've brought your cheese, but I won't answer for the +state of it." + +Miss Lessing cast a quick glance at me. "Where----?" + +"_Not_ at Johnson's. I don't know if my sister has explained to you, +Doctor Haverhill, that we are a boycotted household? We find it +quite amusing. It leads to a practice of expedience which is +excellent training for the young. Mary has learned to make quite +creditable bread already." + +"Out of the sawdust they pack the canned goods in," put in his sister +promptly. "Carry that dish in without spilling it, Dick, and don't +talk nonsense!" + +We sat down to one of the most cheerful meals four young people have +ever enjoyed. I would except Mrs. Lessing, but that even her limp +and monosyllabic presence failed to dampen our spirits. Afterwards +Lessing made Turkish coffee over a spirit lamp while the two girls +cleared the table, refusing my assistance high-handedly. + +I moved about the room in the familiarity which our informal meal had +fostered, looking at the knick-knacks, the row of books on the +shelves. They were a pretty varied collection, poetry, some modern +French scientific books and novels, and one of the most complete +collections of detective literature I have ever encountered, side by +side with a few text-books on chemistry and some volumes on occultism +and black magic, some familiar to me by title, others unknown. There +was a monthly magazine lying near which I recognized as occupying +itself largely with the subject of psychic phenomena, and turning it +over I noticed Lessing's name in the index. + +"You write?" I asked. + +"Once in a blue moon!" He looked up from a critical stage in his +coffee-making. "Does that sort of thing interest you?" + +"Indifferently--if it happens to be genuine." + +"There's so little genuine." He withdrew the coffee deftly, blowing +out the lamp, and stood the little copper pot aside. "That's the +worst of it. One endures hours of boredom for no result." + +"You belong to the P.R.S.?" + +"A most respectable and unexciting body." He smiled. "I would give +in my demission, only they afford me a patient hearing from time to +time. Besides, it gives me the opportunity of wrangling with +someone, and contention is the spice of life, as I was saying. It +was with that truism that I strove to console Lennox, when I bored +him to extinction." + +Involuntarily my ears pricked. + +"Was that often?" + +"No, I can't say the boredom predominated, in the long run." He +surveyed his coffee with the air of an artist, his boyish head on one +side. + +"Where are those cups, Mary?" + +"Your system of boredom seemed to have a remarkable effect on Lennox, +anyway," slipped from me involuntarily. + +Lessing laughed. "Oh, that was when the boredom ended! He stood it +nobly to a point." He turned toward me. "Would you like to see what +frightened Lennox, sometime?" + +Before I could answer Mary Lessing came in with the coffee-cups, and +the subject was dropped. + +It was ten o'clock when I rose to leave, my departure hastened by a +suspicion that Mrs. Lessing had glanced several times of purpose at +the clock. They all came out on the porch to say good night, and at +the last moment Lessing added: "I'll walk down the hill with you." + +"I've got my bicycle," I said quickly, as Miss Lessing looked up. +"There's no need to bring you out." + +"Oh, it'll do me good!" + +It was a still, sultry night, with a humidity in the air that had +arisen since nightfall. We walked leisurely, smoking, as far as the +crossroad at the top of Dutchman's Hill. The hollow below was alive +with fireflies, gleaming and vanishing alternately in the soft dusk. +There should be a moon, but within the past hour premonitory +rainclouds had gathered, blotting it out. Lessing glanced at the sky. + +"How long will it take you to get back?" + +"Ten minutes, more or less. It won't rain till I get there." + +I scratched a match, stooping toward my bicycle lantern. + +"Is it necessary to light that?" he asked. + +"Why not? There's a bad bit of road at the bottom there." + +"I find the glare of a lamp like that always makes it worse. What is +it, acetylene?" + +He bent over the lantern to examine it, and in the pause the match +burned down and went out. I felt for the box again in my pocket, and +as I did so Lessing let go his hold on the bicycle. The machine +slipped by its weight, and reaching quickly to catch it I heard the +unmistakable sound of escaping air. + +"Now you've done it!" cried Lessing boyishly. + +"Damn!" I groped for the rear tire. It was flat. "Here's a +cheerful business. How the dickens----" + +Lessing laughed. "We'll have to walk it now! Never mind. I know +the road." + +"I'm not going to bring you all that way," I said. "I shall be all +right." + +"Nonsense! I like a walk before I turn in." + +He took hold of the bicycle on one side, I on the other, and together +we set off to walk down the hill. There is an exhilaration in +walking through woods at night, even tempered by the necessity of +pushing a heavy motor-cycle before you, and my brief annoyance at the +accident rapidly vanished. Lessing was boyishly high-spirited; +between us we made a fairly rowdy trip of it. We had just finished +the ascent of the other side of the hollow when he laid a sudden hand +on my arm. + +"Did you hear anything?" + +"No. Why?" + +I thought he was still joking, but his cloak of nonsense had dropped +from him abruptly. He pulled me to the side of the road. + +"Listen!" + +There seemed nothing to listen for. I waited, rather impatiently. +Lessing threw back his head, scanning the line of the trees that shut +us in. "There!" + +It was still in my mind that he was trying to play some game on me. + +"It's nothing but a bird," I said. + +"Bird? You heard nothing else?" + +"No." + +"Come on," Lessing said. He seemed abruptly sobered, and I fancied +he was at pains to quicken our pace over the remaining stretch of +road. When we sighted the glimmer of the orchard palings I pulled up. + +"Come on into the house and have a drink," I said. + +"No, thanks. I must get back. By the way, do you carry a revolver?" + +"What on earth for?" + +"I only wondered. I should advise you to, around here." His hand +slipped down to his pocket, and I heard a soft click. + +"What are you going to do?" + +"Have a pot at the birds, going back." He smiled. "Good night. +Look in sometime during the week." + +And he went off without further delay, whistling softly. + + + + +VII + +WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LABORATORY + +Instead, it was Lessing who came a day or two later to see me. He +lounged in one evening when I was sitting smoking on the porch, after +supper, and my first advice of his presence was the clatter of a zinc +pail which Pete let fall promptly in the side yard. When Lessing +rounded the corner of the porch he was grinning. + +"Your nigger must have a bad conscience," he said. "I never saw +anyone so afraid of the devil in all my life!" + +I made a sound of annoyance. Evidently I had not finished with Pete +yet. "He's a born idiot!" I said. + +"I'm not so sure," Lessing returned. "He has a very practical regard +for his own skin. I appreciate that." + +"You ought to." + +He gave me one of those habitual quick looks, his head on one side. + +"Thanks! Do you find the mosquitoes bad around here? I got all +bitten up coming past Dutchman's Hollow." + +I took the hint. + +"We'll sit indoors," I said. "It's pretty cool in the surgery." + +He followed me into the room, glancing curiously about him. + +"So this is where old Lennox hung out ... the place has a look of +him. What's that, butterflies? He always had a weakness for things +he could stick a pin into and label nicely!" + +"Have you never been here before?" + +"Never. He used to come to my place. I have an idea you know, that +Lennox still thinks I'm not right in the head." + +I lit the student lamp on the table and set out whisky and a couple +of glasses. Lessing settled himself in the shabby armchair opposite +me, and for a little while we smoked in silence. In the half-shadow +beyond the ring of lamplight I could see his face, fine and clear cut +against the shabby morocco of the chair back, the dark hair tumbled +over his forehead. He was staring up at the smoke wreaths in a +curious intensity of abstraction. + +"I suppose," he began at last, "that I owe you some sort of an +explanation, as things go." + +I made a little gesture of indifference. I was beginning to know my +man. If it pleased him to work upon my curiosity I was prepared to +give him the least possible satisfaction. + +"You offered me one," I corrected him. "I believe we decided to let +it go at that." + +He turned his gaze upon me, with a rather charming impertinence. + +"That was when I took you for a fool. As I admit the error you ought +to forgive my expression of it. The truth is..." He paused so long +that I reached for a fresh cigarette to break the interval. "I'll be +damned if I know what the truth is myself!" He finished almost +violently. "I can give you facts--all you want. When it comes to +putting things together.... Do you know how maddening it is to have +your hand on a thing--actually on it--and feel it all the while +slipping through your fingers?" + +He threw his cigarette away. "Let's drop all this nonsense, anyway. +I came over here tonight to have a talk with you. I tell you +frankly, because you're about the only sane man I'm likely to cross +down here. I tried Lennox once, and Lennox thought I was batty, and +there the matter ended. But I've got to a point now where it's +absolutely necessary, for the sake of my own mental balance, that I +should have someone else's opinion about things. I'm going to put +certain facts before you, and you'll say what you think about them." + +I nodded. + +"About eighteen months ago," Lessing began, "my wife was in rather +bad health. It was some sort of nervous trouble, which I need not +enter into here, but the doctor said she needed complete change, and +that she must positively live in the country for some time, a year or +two at least. We came down here. I bought the piece of ground up +the hill there and built the little bungalow we are living in, with +the idea of using it later on, when her health is restored, simply as +a summer cottage. I have a fondness for dabbling in chemistry, as I +think I told you, and shortly after we moved down here I built that +sort of outdoor study you have seen, so that I could have a place, +perfectly quiet, that I could work in without being disturbed, and +without messing the house up with my things. I am not a good +sleeper. I sit up pretty late at night as a rule, and it worries me +to know I'm disturbing other people in the house or that the women +are liable to drop in in their dressing-gowns at half-past one or so, +to ask whether I'm going to bed or not. + +"My laboratory has a top light for day use, and I have rigged up an +acetylene lamp just over my table, with a pretty strong light. One +night last fall I happened to be working rather late. As a rule I +have no difficulty whatever about keeping awake--it's the other way +about, in fact--but along about one o'clock I began to get rather +drowsy. It might have been the fumes of the chemicals I was using, +but I'm used to that, and anyway I don't think they could have +affected me. My interest in what I was doing was still awake, but +the other side of my mind seemed to get drowsy at the same time. I +fought against it a long while, and then gradually I seemed to get +the consciousness of something--some presence--in or near the room. +I don't know if you have ever attended a séance, Haverill?" + +"Never--of any account." + +My cigarette had burned down to my fingers, and I threw it away. I +was beginning to get keenly interested in his story. + +"Well, if you had, you would know that one sometimes gets the sense +of a materialization some minutes before it actually takes place. I +suppose the subconscious part of one's mind acts more quickly than +the senses in receiving an impression. Anyway that was what seemed +to happen with me. I waited. I was awake; I want you to understand +that clearly. I was as awake as I am now. I saw everything about +me, but I seemed to see it in a quite impersonal sort of way. + +"The top light is arranged to open in sections, the top as well as +the four sides. The side glasses were my idea for bad weather, so +that I could always have ventilation on one side or the other without +rain driving in, as it will with an ordinary skylight. I had the +middle section raised, and one side open as well. Presently I was +conscious that something was trying to enter at the glass. There +were no sound on the roof itself, which is galvanized, but I could +hear plainly a sort of scraping at the window. The inside light was +so strong that I could see nothing, but something was gradually +obscuring the opening. I had a conviction that the thing, whatever +it was, was attracted by my light, and I made an effort, with the +strange drowsiness gaining on me, to reach the lamp and turn it out. + +"I was on my feet, reaching across the table, with the glare of the +lamp full in my eyes, when something--I don't know what--struck me +and threw me to the ground. My hand was already on the lamp, and I +must have managed to turn it out actually in the moment of falling. +I have a recollection of struggling for a moment there in the +darkness, of trying, with some sort of hazy instinct, to drag myself +under cover of the table, and then I suppose I became unconscious. + +"When I came to it was broad daylight. I was lying on the floor, +near the table. There was broken glass near me, and I seemed to +remember the crash of it before I lost consciousness. My clothes +were torn, my arms and chest were badly scratched--I must have +somehow defended my face without knowing it--and I was stiff all over +when I moved. When I got into the open I was seized with an intense +nausea, which lasted for several minutes. My wife and sister are +used to my being up till all hours, so that my absence had caused no +uneasiness. I went into the house, washed myself as well as I could, +and went to sleep. It was then five o'clock, so that I must have +been nearly four hours unconscious." + +"Did you notice any other symptoms besides the nausea?" I interrupted. + +"Yes; an intense fatigue. It was not sleepiness. I was tired out, +as if I had been through some great exertion." + +"Well?" I said, for I knew he had not finished. + +"That was last October, the twenty-fourth, to be exact. Since then +the thing has happened twice again. On each occasion I have had the +same premonitory drowsiness. I have struggled against it, and it has +mastered me at just the critical moment. The second time when I came +to I was more badly hurt than before. My sister happened to be up +early that morning, and there was no disguising my condition from +her. She went off for Lennox. When he came he fixed me up and gave +me a sleeping draught--which I didn't need--and I slept nearly the +whole day. He held the opinion, which I wrested from him later, that +I had had some sort of seizure, the result of overwork, and that I +had inflicted the injuries on myself during unconsciousness. The +rest he put down to hallucination. He was a fool, and I told him so. +Whatever the thing was, it was no hallucination." + +"How wide was the skylight open?" + +"About eighteen inches." + +"Did you find any traces in the morning?" + +"Not a mark. The building is high, as you know, and the sides are of +perfectly plain boarding. There is nothing that could give foothold, +except to a monkey, and the nearest tree is eight feet off. Oh, I +went over the whole ground carefully! Whatever it was that came, it +did not reach me from the ground." + +I moved impatiently. "But what other way could it have reached you?" + +"That's what I ask myself," said Lessing grimly. "Do I look like a +man subject to brain trouble?" + +"No," I said. "I gave that theory up almost immediately." + +"Then what do you make of it?" he asked quietly. + +"Make of it!" I cried. "Good heavens, man, do you realize that +you're asking me to believe a thing that's outside the range of all +human possibility!" + +"Human possibility! What is human possibility? I tell you the thing +as it happened, simply." He rose and began to pace to and fro in the +room. "I'm a sane man. I'm not given to imaginary things. And +besides--you saw yourself----" + +"Wait a moment," I said. "About this light. Have you used the same +lamp right along?" + +Lessing gave a quick look. I wondered if he had divined my visit to +the laboratory that first morning. + +"No. I altered it after the second time. There was an interval of +over four months when nothing happened at all. I tried to reason it +all out, and I concluded that in some way the lamp had had to do with +it. From the position of the building, and the woods about it, the +light I was at first using could be visible only from one certain +direction. I wanted to investigate the whole thing systematically, +and with that idea I raised the lamp and fitted a strong reflector +that would throw the light outside the building at will, and in any +direction." + +His description corresponded with the light I had seen above the +tree-tops, the night of Pete's adventure with the turkey-buzzard. + +"You were using this the last time?" + +"Yes. I had been experimenting with it, off and on, for several +weeks." + +"Have you any idea of the shape of the thing?" I asked him. + +"So far as I could make out anything, outside the glass, I might +describe it as some kind of dog. It seemed to be greyish.... But +that as a theory is sheer nonsense. You know that no dog could have +made the scratches you saw." + +One thing still puzzled me. + +"You say that you put the light out yourself the first time?" + +"Yes." + +"And the second?" + +"There was scarcely time to get any definite impression," he answered +evasively. "I was struck down almost at once." + +"But you had the impression of a dog?" + +"What does it matter?" he cried, with a sudden change of voice. "I +tell you, Haverill, it was like nothing that I can describe!" + +We sat there for some minutes in silence. I can see now the turn of +Lessing's head, the restless movement of his fingers on the +chair-arm. It seemed incongruous that we should be sitting here in +this common-place room, amid surroundings which spoke so emphatically +of the practical routine of life, discussing that which should have +branded us both as madmen. + +It was Lessing who broke the silence first. + +"What the good?" he said, with a short laugh. "I've told you the +whole business, and it's up to you to make what you choose of it. +The only conclusion seems to be that we are up against something +which is, as you put it, outside the range of experience. Good. But +suppose I told you that it wasn't outside the range of +experience--that what I saw has been seen by other people, upon +independent testimony, ten, twenty, thirty years ago?" + +I thought of the reporter's story. But there would be time to +contribute my data presently, after Lessing had told me all that he +knew. + +"Did you ever hear of an apparition called the Jersey Devil?" he +asked. + +"I don't remember it." + +"You probably wouldn't," Lessing replied. He took a fresh cigarette +from the box and lit it. "The tale afforded some stray paragraphs in +the papers, at different times, much as the periodical accounts of +'authentic' ghosts do, but I don't believe anyone gave the slightest +credence to it. The Jersey Devil, to sum up all that I have been +able to glean on the subject, was a legendary monster, reputed to +have been seen, on the evidence of several persons, at different +periods during the past fifty or sixty years. The legend goes back, +I believe, to just before the Civil War. According to the story, its +appearance gives warning to some national trouble or calamity. It +was said to have been seen before Lincoln's assassination, before the +Spanish-American War, and before the assassination of President +McKinley. It is described as a creature having the body of a bat and +the head of a horse--sometimes as a quasi-human head on a winged +animal body--and it haunts certain counties of New Jersey, chiefly +Monmouth and Ocean counties, and has also been seen as far north as +Pennsylvania. The legend goes that it is a changeling, that is to +say, a devil which took possession of a child's body at birth and +flew off in the shape of a monster. Why it should have developed the +sort of national solicitude they claim for it is unexplained. Of +course the evidence is almost entirely that of superstitious country +people who saw it, or thought they saw it, but the fact remains that +the evidence in every case tallies, even after intervals of ten or +twenty years. + +"We may take it that very legend has somewhere some natural origin, +however much it may be subsequently exaggerated or distorted. Why, +if this particular legend is purely imaginary, should it be confined +to certain districts and not to others? We are not dealing with an +apparition reputed to haunt one particular place. It has a pretty +wide range of country, on the contrary, and its appearance has been +vouched for, almost simultaneously, in places a great many miles +apart. Why should it be seen in one certain county and not in the +adjoining ones, where the inhabitants are probably equally +superstitious? Also it is not seen actually at the time of trouble, +when people's minds might be most naturally influenced by +superstition, but days and sometimes weeks before the event. That +fact in itself I attach no importance to. There is a coincidence, +and people naturally connect the two ideas. But I mention it to +prove that in no instance was the thing seen because it was expected +to be seen; its appearance in each case was entirely without warning +or predisposition." + +I moved in my chair. + +"We've got enough to deal with as the thing stands. If you're going +to back it up with any old wives' tales of a bat-winged horse----" + +"I'm not backing it up," Lessing retorted. "I'm only asking myself +whether the experiences that give rise to the tale of the Jersey +Devil have any connection with my own. The details don't matter. I +want to get at the origin of the thing." + +"The two don't even tally!" I spoke sharply, for I had still +uncomfortably before my eyes the vision of the dead cyclist on the +stretch of empty road. + +"They don't, on this point," Lessing continued coolly. "The Jersey +Devil has never, to my knowledge, been credited with any malevolent +intent. At the worst, assuming the tales to have some basis of +truth, it has merely scared one or two respectable farmers driving +home at night. Now the thing that attacked me, attacked me +deliberately, and with an almost extraordinary ferocity of onslaught. +I don't think there can be any question about that. That fact alone +puts the apparition theory out of the game. We are not dealing with +any mere visual phenomena. We are dealing with some actual existing +menace. There is just one point that can lead up to the connection, +if there is one, between the two." + +"The attraction of the lamp?" + +"Exactly. Those other people may have been carrying a lamp or they +may not. In any case, it was probably a lantern of so slight a power +as to escape notice. I said that the thing attacked me. But the +real object of its attack might very well have been the lamp, and not +me at all. I merely happened in each instance to be near it." + +"But even admitting," I objected, "for the sake of argument, that the +thing was a bat, I am not certain about bats being actually attracted +by light. They blunder into it." + +"Nor am I. As I say, I give you my only theory. And if you assume a +bat, you must assume a bat of sufficient size to strike a man down at +one blow. The whole thing's grotesque." He pulled out his watch, +and rose abruptly. "I must get back, or Mary will be worrying about +me. We'll talk over this another time. If you go into the thing +with me, we'll go into it thoroughly. Only you know now why I warned +you against cycling with a strong lantern." + +"Even to the extent of slitting my bicycle tire?" + +"Even to that extent," returned Lessing gravely. "You see, I wasn't +taking any risks." + +We shook hands, and I followed him out to the porch. There was a +clear moon, and the road glimmered white between the black line of +the woods. As I watched the swing of his shoulders down the path I +was left, I admit, with a definite sense of comfort at the proximity +of my own four walls. And before sleep overtook me that night the +words of the reporter came back again and again to my mind: + +"What's the animal that goes round in these woods that's strong +enough to wreck the steel tubing of a bicycle, that attacks with its +claws instead of its teeth, and that's quick enough to knock a man +down without the chance of a struggle?" + + + + +VIII + +I GO FISHING + +The next morning was one of the most glorious that I remember in that +whole summer. I rose early, throwing the windows wide open while I +dressed to let in the full blaze of sunshine, and set myself, while +the morning common-sense mood was still upon me, to go over carefully +in my mind every detail of Lessing's story. Somewhere there must be +a natural explanation; it was only the question of finding it. Among +other things it occurred to me that someone, for reasons unknown, +might be playing a series of practical jokes upon him, but it was +difficult to credit a hoax of such malignant and serious intent, and +even assuming for a moment that Lessing was the victim of any such +plot, it did not explain those mysterious deaths which, I felt more +and more convinced, were in some way connected with his own +experiences. + +It was at least certain that I was in for a fairly interesting +vacation. I remembered with grim humour Lennox's assurance that I +would find the practice a quiet one; opinions might well differ on +that point. Even if Lennox came back at the time agreed upon, I had +still another six weeks before me, and in six weeks a good deal might +happen. It would be my own fault if I did not get some part of the +mystery cleared up before then. + +Everyone has his own private specific for clearing the mind. Mine +was fishing. After breakfast I hunted out my tackle, asked Mrs. +Searle to pack me a lunch, and set out resolutely, with the +determination to remain in the open air until nightfall. + +Part of the creek that lay behind the house I had already explored, +and this morning I decided to work upstream, in the direction of the +dam. The air was clear and fresh and the woods were alive with +birds. Here and there the sumach and poison ivy were already +beginning to turn colour, showing patches of tawny scarlet against +the green of the undergrowth. Great painted butterflies flitted +across my path, and once, as I sat quietly on a boulder in midstream, +a kingfisher flashed near me in the broken sunlight. + +The creek ran with a pleasant sound in its bed, now swirling between +great boulders, now trickling over shallows of waving bronze-tinted +weed, here and there forming deep pools, outside the stress of the +current, where one might catch a glimpse of shadowy forms moving +through the gold-brown sun-shot water. + +I made desultory casts, taking more interest in the morning and in my +surroundings than in the actual pursuit upon which I was engaged. +Out here under the trees, with the music of the stream in one's ear, +it was impossible to feel anything but sane and healthy. + +The silence of these woods was intense. In pine woods there is +always some stir of movement, however faint, but these trees, giant +hickories and dense-foliaged oaks, grew so tall that sound seemed +lost amid their branches. One had the impression of miles of +far-reaching solitude. To break the spell I began to whistle as I +moved upstream, pausing now and then to try some likely pool, picking +my way over the big rocks that dotted the bed of the stream. The +creek was fairly deep in places; a child, losing its footing, could +be easily drowned in the strong current. It was an ideal stream for +sport, but either the fish were wary this morning or I was giving but +scant attention to my task, for by midday I had only one small +half-pounder and a missing hook to my score. Mrs. Searle's luncheon +packet bulged in my pocket, reminding me presently of hunger. I was +reeling in, preparatory to settling down by some comfortable +tree-trunk, when something rushed at me with a splash and a scurry. +I was standing at the moment on a rounded boulder near midstream, and +the impact threw me off my balance knee-deep into the water. I +turned to see the Lessings' orange setter. + +"Oh, you _bad_ dog!" a voice exclaimed from the bushes. +"Whatever---- Oh, Doctor Haverill, I am so sorry!" + +Mary Lessing stood on the bank, bareheaded, in a short golf-skirt and +uprolled sleeves. The dog bounded back to her, and she dealt him a +summary and ineffectual cuff on the ear. + +"Don't do that!" I cried. "I was just thinking how cool it looked in +here, anyway!" + +I waded to the shore and joined her. "I can't shake hands, because +I'm wet," I added. "How are you? I've been trying to fish, but the +trout here are entirely too sophisticated!" + +"You've frightened them for good now!" she laughed. "What a shame! +Did you catch anything?" + +"One wretched half-pounder. I put him back for luck." + +"A poor luck!" + +"I'm not so sure," I rejoined, smiling, and she stooped hastily down +to address the setter, who sat regarding us with lolling tongue. + +"When are you going to learn manners, you wretched animal? You +haven't even the grace to apologize!" + +The setter put up a muddied paw and scraped appealingly at her skirt. +"You deserve to go without biscuit for a month," she continued. "Go +away from me; don't shake yourself here!" + +The command came too late, and we both dodged to avoid the jubilant +shower of water drops. Mary Lessing shook her skirt and sat down. + +"Do you often explore up this way?" she asked. + +"No. It's the first time. I've no idea now how far I've come." + +"You're about ten minutes from the dam," she said. "Our cottage is +not very far off. I was just going back to lunch." + +"And I was just going to have mine here." I clapped a sudden hand to +my pocket; the paper parcel was still luckily intact. "Suppose we +were to consider it a picnic? I don't know what Mrs. Searle has put +up for me, but I have a recollection that she baked apple-cake +yesterday. It's too entirely gorgeous a day to eat indoors." + +"Oh, as for that----" she began. + +"As for that, you must admit that lunch indoors doesn't tempt you in +the very least." + +"It doesn't," she said. "I came out here this morning because----" + +She stopped rather abruptly. I was looking about me for a likely +spot in the shade, and when I had found it, at the base of two +towering hickories, I pulled Mrs. Searle's parcel out from my pocket. +The setter watched my proceedings with a keen interest, intent on the +chance of the moment. + +"I'm convinced," she objected, "that you ought to go home and change +your boots." + +"It's impertinent," I reminded her, untying the pink grocery string +from the parcel, "to give medical advice to a doctor. Do you like +Uneeda biscuits? Because they seem to have occupied an important +place in my housekeeper's mind this morning." + +We sat down on the moss beneath the hickories, and I divided the +single gigantic sandwich with my pocket-knife. Luckily Mrs. Searle +had over-estimated my hunger. We ate healthily, with open-air +appetites, and what was left over the setter finished at one watchful +snap. + +"When does Doctor Lennox come home?" Mary asked presently. + +"He's due in another six weeks, unless he finds Europe too +fascinating. Then I shall have to go back and grind, I suppose. It +won't be an attractive prospect, after this holiday." + +"You have a practice in New York?" + +"Not yet. I've been _interne_ up to now. I expect it'll end in the +East Side. A friend of mine has a settlement there, and I'd like to +join him if I can. There's always plenty to do." + +"I know," she nodded. "I've seen something of it. Do you know a man +named Herrick, there?" + +"Herrick!" I sat upright. "If you mean Jack Herrick, that's the +friend I was speaking of. Then you----" + +"Then _you_," she corrected, "are the college chum he was always +talking about. Why, I've known Jack Herrick ever since I used to +play dolls!" + +"Three and a half years..." I said pensively. "The world's a small +place." + +"You are rude, Doctor Haverill. It's a long enough time, anyway." + +She was looking at the branches overhead, and in her upturned face I +caught fleetingly a likeness that had puzzled me more than once +before. I knew now. On Herrick's mantelshelf, in his shabby +comfortable room at the settlement, there had stood always a +photograph in a silver frame. It was the portrait of a child of +perhaps thirteen, in a gingham overall, and with her hair braided in +two short tails down her back. Herrick had said once: "That's an old +sweetheart of mine." + +Singularly enough, the recollection did not at this moment greatly +please me. But I merely said: + +"You wore your hair in two pig-tails." + +She brought her eyes to earth swiftly. "Who told you?" + +"All proper little girls do at that age," I reminded her shamelessly. + +"I see. But we were talking of John Herrick." + +"Go on." + +"Don't you think he's splendid?" she continued, turning to me. "He's +done no end of good. And he works ... I don't believe he ever takes +a real holiday. Doctor Haverill, you ought to get him----" + +"To come down here for a while? I will--if it would please you." + +She looked at me so frankly that I was at once ashamed. + +"Why, of course it would! But I don't know why I said that. I don't +suppose he'd take the time." + +I watched a dragon-fly that was wheeling over the stream.. She sat +near me, her hands locked about her knees. + +"My brother was at your house last night," she said after a moment. + +"Yes." + +I could feel her eyes fixed on me, and I knew what was in her mind. + +"He told you something?" + +"We were talking about chemistry," I said. "It's a subject your +brother is very interested in." + +"Chemistry!" She put out her hand with a little gesture. "Doctor +Haverill, do you take me for a child? What is the matter? You can +tell me; he has spoken to you. I want to know." + +"What do you want to know?" I said, lamely enough. + +"The whole thing--what is happening here. I know something threatens +him, that he is in danger, and neither he nor you will tell me what +it is." + +"How can I tell you," I fenced, "what I don't even know myself?" + +She was quick. "Then there is something?" + +I ignored the unfinished sentence. + +"Miss Lessing, why can't you get your brother to go away from here, +for a time?" + +"I can't. I've tried. He wouldn't leave, now. You don't know him. +He's the last person in the world to give a thing up until he's +proved it down to the ground, one way or another. Whatever's at the +bottom of this, he won't rest till he's found it out. It's just a +scientific problem to him, and nothing else." + +"And you?" I said. + +"I?" She moved her shoulders. "What can I think? I had hoped just +now--But I only know what he has told me, what I have seen. If one +began to think----" + +"Listen to me," I said. "You must not think! You and I are two sane +people. Look at these wood around! I ask you, is it possible to +feel anything but sane and incredulous in a place like this? I want +you to get into your head, right now, that there is nothing--nothing +at all in this world--that a man has any reason to be afraid of. And +there are very few things in the world, to my belief, that cannot be +explained. Has it ever occurred to you that this whole conviction of +your brother's may be nothing more than hallucination?" + +"But the injuries----" + +"I have known hysteric patients, before now, inflict as severe +injuries upon themselves without consciousness or recollection. I +don't say it is your brother's case; I'm only trying to form a +possible rational explanation such as any doctor would put forward. +I have had one or two such cases within my own experience. What I +propose to do is this, but I shall do it only with your consent. I +will write to Herrick and ask him down here for a fortnight. It will +be a new brain to bear on the problem, and I shall ask your brother +to let us join these investigations with him." + +"You'll do that." She put out her hand to me impulsively. + +"I'll do it to-night. Only ... I shall have to give Herrick a +detailed account of everything that has happened, so far as we know +it, and I can't do that without your brother's approval." + +"Yes ... I see." + +"You will excuse one question. Are they on good terms?" + +It struck me that I had never heard Lessing mention his name. + +"Yes." She paused doubtfully. "It's funny you should ask that. +They had a disagreement, about two years ago. It was when my brother +first took up this ... this kind of study. Having séances and that. +Doctor Herrick wanted him to give it up." + +I moved involuntarily. Here was a new light on Lessing's attitude of +mind, which he himself had been at pains, it seemed to me, to touch +on very lightly. I remembered stray references of his, the signed +article I had noticed on my first evening at the house. + +"Your brother used to attend séances often?" + +"Didn't he tell you? I don't know that I would have mentioned it, +but I don't see that it matters. It was before I came to live with +them. He and some friends of his were very interested, and Doctor +Herrick used to join them too sometimes. They met at a friend's +studio. Doctor Herrick was rather against it from the first, but I +know he used to be there. Of course I understand very little about +it, but ... things did happen. I don't mean that they banged on +tambourines or rapped out the alphabet or anything like that. It +wasn't spiritualism. And then Doctor Herrick stopped. I think he +knew more than any of them, but he said it was dangerous and it +didn't lead to anything, and he wanted my brother to give it up +altogether. Kate--that's my sister-in-law, you know--was their +medium, and I think it was on her account. Doctor Herrick thought it +was bad for her. And then one night something happened, I don't know +just what, but Kate got some sort of a shock. She's very highly +strung at any time, and I always supposed something frightened her, +but anyway she was quite ill for a long time after that. She used to +get queer sort of nervous spells, and she couldn't be left alone, and +that was why I first came to live with them, on her account. Of +course my brother gave the whole business up then. The physician who +attended her said simply that she was in poor health, and had had a +nervous breakdown, and he told her she must live in the country +awhile till she got stronger, but I know Doctor Herrick thought at +the time that the séances had been the cause of it. He told my +brother so." + +I listened attentively. It was news to me that Herrick, the +essential level-headed, should have lent himself at any time to +experiments of this order. He had never mentioned the subject to me +in our many talks, and I had even gathered, as one gathers an +impression without any very definite grounds, that he was a confirmed +sceptic on all matters of occultism. + +"You say they had a disagreement?" + +"It was exactly that," she made haste to say, "They didn't quarrel, +but I know Herrick was very much opposed to Dick's views, and they +used to have arguments. But it didn't amount to more than that." + +"Good!" + +She had risen to her feet, and at her movement the setter himself +lazily rose and came towards us. + +"Then we're going to see this thing out?" I said. + +"We'll see it out." + +We shook hands, and I fancied that her fingers rested in mine a +moment voluntarily before she drew them away. + +"Are you coming up to see my brother today?" she asked. + +"Presently ... I'd like to." I looked at my watch. "I thought of +taking a stroll up to the dam, as I'm so close; I've never been +there. You say it's only a few minutes?" + +"Not more than ten, through the woods." + +"Let's walk up together," I suggested, "if you aren't too tired." + +She assented readily, and we struck off up a little footpath, barely +traceable, that followed the course of the stream. It was, as she +had said, a scant ten minutes before the sound of the sluice broke on +our ears, and through a sudden clearing of the woods the dam lay +before us, a black sinister sheet of water, covered with masses of +floating weed and pond-lilies, and darkened by the trees and +underbrush that grew closely down to its edge. An old scow, long +past use and sunken low in the water, lay pad-locked to a slimy stump +near the shore. + +Following an old cart-track, we skirted the edge of the dam in the +direction of the saw-mill, a dilapidated building with broken roof, +that seemed to have stood for many years of disuse. To reach it we +had to cross the sluice itself, and Mary Lessing, who was a few paces +ahead of me, paused to look down over the single rough handrail that +protected one from a misstep. + +There is something forbidding about a mill-sluice at any time, +especially when dissociated, as this was, from the companionable +sound of human labour. The sheer depth, the knowledge of the vast +imprisoned force behind one, the sound of water gushing here and +there between the slimy weed-grown timbers, give always, to me at +least, an indefinable sense of the sinister. + +I leaned my rod against the railing, and we looked down side by side +at the black oozing wall below. + +"I like this place," Mary Lessing said. "There's something queer and +creepy about it. I often come here. I suppose they haven't worked +the sluice for years." + +"I doubt if the machinery would move now," I said. "Of course this +is never opened. There should be a smaller sluice for the millstream +further on." + +I glanced as I spoke at the clumsy wooden levers near me that +controlled the sluice. They looked to be rotting in their place, but +as I pushed one, idly, a sudden change in the sound of escaping water +below warned me that the machinery was not in such ill repair as it +would seem. I exerted my strength to pull the lever back, and my +attention was momentarily distracted from the girl beside me. She +was leaning out over the hand-rail, and when I turned it was with a +sudden cry of warning. + +"Look out!" I said. "That may not be safe!" + +I caught her arm instinctively as I spoke, and on the instant the +rail bent outward with a slight sound of cracking. In another moment +she would have been over the edge. We looked at one another, and +Mary laughed, a little nervously on the stillness. Her face had +flushed. + +"I thought that rail was all right," she said rather awkwardly. + +"Dick walked over here with me not a week ago, and we tested it then +to see." + +"It isn't all right now," I returned sharply. + +I put my two hands on the rail, giving it a slight wrench outward. +It gave easily to my touch, and looking closer, I saw that the +surface towards the water had been half cut through. Someone had +tampered with it deliberately and within the last few days. + +"What is it?" Mary Lessing asked. + +"Merely rotten, as I thought!" + +I turned away, and walked thoughtfully on towards the saw-mill. The +thing puzzled me, but it had an ugly look. It was no idle mischief +that had prompted the act. Whoever had done it, had done it +maliciously, and the purpose was not very far to seek. Hitherto I +had not attached much importance to the Lessings' occasional laughing +references to their unpopularity in the village. Now it assumed +suddenly a significance. + +I turned to Mary Lessing, walking beside me. + +"I want you to promise me something," I said, "whether it seems to +you irrelevant or not. I want you not to come here again by +yourself, at any time. It's a lonely place and it isn't particularly +safe. If you come at all, bring your brother with you." + +The smile that was on her lips at first faded abruptly, leaving her +face serious. + +"The rail was cut," she said quietly. "Is that what you mean? It +must have been, because it was perfectly solid a few days ago." + +"Someone has been up to mischief. If there are characters of that +kind in the neighbourhood, it's best to run no risks, that's all." + +We walked on a few paces, silently. The mill was on our right, a +desolate-looking building enough, with its surrounding litter of +sodden chips and piles of cut logs lying here and there In the open. +A heavy smell of decaying wood was in the air, added to the stagnant +odour of the dam itself. + +The setter was in front of us, sniffing to and fro on the trail of +the rats that infested the wood piles. Suddenly he stood still, his +ears laid back, growling ominously. A short, thick-set figure +slipped from the angle of the mill wall and vanished in the woods on +the farther side of the cart-track. + +"Aaron Menning," Miss Lessing said. She put her hand and called the +dog back. I was staring up the track where the chicken-huckster had +so adroitly disappeared. + +"Does he live near here?" + +"Not very far off. I suppose he comes here to fish. There are a +good many in the dam." + +"Very probable," I said. + +"I dislike that man," Mary said after a moment. "I guess it's +mutual, too. The other one, Jake, you know, had a quarrel with my +brother one time. He was always loitering round the house, and Dick +turned him away. Aaron's always very civil when we meet, but I don't +believe he likes us any more than Jakey did." + +We took a turning past the mill that led us, without further event, +to the Lessings' bungalow. Within sight of the house I parted from +her. I wanted to see Lessing again, but there were a few points that +needed readjustment in my own mind first. As I walked slowly home +down the familiar slope of Dutchman's Hill I was thinking that the +industrious and chapel-going Aaron might very well bear a little +watching. + + + + +IX + +PROBLEMS + +I wrote to Herrick that same evening and his answer came a couple of +days later, saying that he hoped to get away towards the end of the +month. I had said nothing in my letter about the events of the +summer, but merely mentioned that the Lessings were my neighbours for +the time being. + +Herrick wrote: "I shall be glad to meet Lessing again. He seems to +have buried himself in obscurity for the last twelve months. Is he +still as enthusiastic a theorist as ever, or has the country sobered +his ideas? In any case you are to be congratulated on having for +neighbours three of the most charming people it has ever been my luck +to meet." + +I smiled at the "three." In my own mind I could have substituted +another numeral which would explain much of Herrick's promptitude in +accepting my invitation. He was very much mistaken if he thought +that any such artless device would put me off the track. In +imagination I already saw myself playing the rôle of a reluctant +gooseberry during his visit. + +Lessing, when I mentioned my expected guest, made a comment almost +identical with Herrick's own. + +"Herrick?" he said. "Good! We shall have some arguments, Haverill, +that will eclipse even your own. If Herrick gets to the bottom of +this by any of his cut-and-dried theories and deductions I'll give +him best once and for all!" + +One thing at least pleased me. I gathered from both their remarks +that whatever difference had occurred between them had been purely a +battle of opinion, and had no influence on their fundamental regard +for one another. Meantime my meeting with Mary Lessing, and the +subsequent incident of the broken hand-rail, had settled my mind on +one point at least. There was some malicious influence at work in +the neighborhood which was distinctly and obviously human, whether it +bore any relation to the laboratory experiences or not, and at any +cost, even if necessary in the face of Lessing's opposition, she must +be kept clear of it. + +Three-fourths of the neighbouring population were Pennsylvania Dutch, +and I had learned enough, in my own infrequent dealings with them, to +recognize their sullen aloofness, amounting almost to a hostility, +towards any stranger settled in their midst. The Lessings were for +some reason disliked in the village, and I fancied that much of the +distrust towards them was due to their having chosen for their +dwelling a spot which already had a sufficiently bad reputation in +the eyes of the country people about. Lessing was by no means the +sort of man to make himself popular here, or even friendly. He was +more or less of a recluse; he had erected a mysterious building in +which, engaged upon equally mysterious pursuits, he chose to isolate +himself until all hours of the night, and he displayed an open +indifference towards all the current gossip and superstition of the +neighbourhood. Following the primitive psychology of these people, +narrow-minded to a degree and distrustful of anything unfamiliar, his +habits alone were sufficient to brand him as an ungodly character. +According to his sister, he had already fallen foul of Jake Menning +soon after his arrival, and I had no doubt whatever that Aaron, out +of revenge, had since done his best to foster the already +antagonistic feeling towards him. The huckster's trade lends itself +to all the back-door gossip of the countryside, and it seemed to me +that I could trace easily enough the fruit of Aaron's house-to-house +visits. Aaron himself was civil-spoken, industrious, religious to +all accounts, and a highly respected member of the community; but all +this did not weigh very far against the man's face. Whatever ill +blood ran in the Menning family, it was certainly not confined to the +deceased Jakey. + +I mentioned my suspicions to Lessing a day or two later, when I was +at the bungalow. + +"Oh, the man's right enough," he returned. "I don't like his kind, +that's all. I had a row with Jakey because I didn't want him hanging +round the place and I told him so. Aaron has never annoyed us in any +way; on the contrary, he takes pains to be particularly civil. I +think he's like all the rest around, glad enough to keep clear of +Dutchman's Hill and all its inhabitants, dead or living!" + +Mary Lessing had asked me, on our homeward walk, not to mention the +cut railing to her brother, and I had not done so. It was sufficient +for the moment that she had agreed to keep away from the mill-dam and +its immediate neighbourhood. She was a sensible girl and I had no +fear that she would break her promise out of any spirit of bravado or +curiosity. + +We were in the sitting-room. Mary had gone down to the village on an +errand, and Mrs. Lessing was as usual invisible. For the time being +we were free from interruption, and it struck me as a good moment to +tell Lessing what I had heard from the reporter concerning the two +mysterious cycling 'fatalities. + +He took it even more seriously than I had expected. It was even with +scant patience that he heard me out. + +"But good heavens, man," he cried, "why didn't you tell me all this +sooner? Don't you see that it's what I've been expecting, what I've +been watching the papers for month after month? It puts my +experience clear of all doubt. I have felt certain--as certain as I +am standing here--that sooner or later some accident of this sort +would turn up." + +"It was a good fifteen miles from here," I said. "Besides----" + +"What's fifteen miles? I don't care if it was fifty! Have you got +the cutting with you?" + +I had. I had torn off the corner with the paragraph, unobserved of +my reporter friend, and I took the fragment now from my pocketbook +and gave it to Lessing. He read it through eagerly. + +"The facts correspond. The man was killed in the open; he had no +chance of shelter. The thing hit him as he was riding." + +"It's not proved." + +"There's the damage to the bicycle." + +"There's exactly that," I said, "which to my mind puts a different +light on the whole thing. If the impact of the blow was sufficient +to damage the bicycle to that extent, how was it that the rider +escaped all injury except a single scratch on the face? It's out of +all reason. There were no marks on the body. That is testified to. +If a man is knocked off his bicycle while riding at even an average +speed, he'll have some marks to show for it. He died from heart +failure, probably resultant upon fright and the shock of the wound. +Very good. But that doesn't account for the bicycle. It seems to me +that whatever attacked him wreaked its spite on the machine +afterwards." + +"He had time to dismount?" + +"Possibly. It doesn't say how near to the bicycle he was lying. If +he fell at all he must have fallen clear of it. The lamp was picked +up several yards away." + +"The lamp..." said Lessing. + +The same thought was in both our minds. + +"What date did this happen?" he asked. + +"It was a week-old paper. I was there ... wait a moment." I made a +rough calculation in my mind. "This happened, apparently, on the +Thursday previous. That should bring it to about the third of the +month." + +"The third was a Thursday," said Lessing. He pulled out an almanac +from the bookshelves and ran the pages over. I saw him frown. + +"There was a full moon on that evening. It is just possible he was +riding without a light at all. If so, that throws my whole theory +out." + +"The whole thing," said I, "looks to me like the work of a maniac. +Take the lamp. It was picked up some yards away. Now a bicycle +lantern isn't merely hung on; it's screwed on, and you can't imagine +any sort of blow struck from above that would dislodge it and throw +it that distance. It must have been either unscrewed or torn off, +deliberately, and that in itself suggests human agency." + +Lessing barely heard me. He was staring at the scrap of paper spread +out on his knee. + +"The first man, according to your reporter was killed actually in the +woods. The second was picked up some twenty feet from the edge of +the woods, on the open road. That's important. It was a clear +night. Why should he be attacked in the open when there were woods +within half a dozen yards that would have given ample ambush?" +Unconsciously he was repeating the reporter's argument. "That +doesn't look like the work of a human being. Besides, the man wasn't +robbed. I tell you, Haverill, there's something that doesn't satisfy +me in all this. Either they made some extraordinary mistake, or ... +but he was riding _towards_ the woods!" + +"Apparently." + +"On what evidence?" + +"I suppose the position of the bicycle," I said lamely. + +"There had been no rain for some days. The roads are hard about +here, and a bicycle wouldn't be likely to leave tracks, especially on +the edge of the path. You're a doctor, Haverill. Suppose a man died +from heart failure, would he necessarily die at the instant of the +shock?" + +"Only in romances. Actually, there would be several seconds' +interval at least." + +"He might run, say, twenty feet and then drop?" + +"Quite possibly. But I don't see how that helps." + +"It means just this," said Lessing, "that according to my idea the +man was not riding towards the woods at all. He was attacked +actually in the woods or at the edge of them, and he ran the twenty +feet to where his body was found. Listen. The moon did not rise +that evening until 10.30. Anyone riding through the woods the +earlier part of the evening would have used a lamp. He was a +stranger in the district and was identified only by papers. No one +in Coopersville knew him or had apparently ever seen him before. +Coopersville is not a large place, and a case like this makes +sufficient talk. If he had passed through there during the evening +someone would have seen him, and it would have been mentioned at the +inquest. The chances are that he had come from a distance, and that +he was riding _towards_ Coopersville with the idea of putting up +there for the night. Assuming that, and that he was carrying a lamp +at the time, we have our facts fairly clear. He was attacked just +within cover of the woods, that is to say, where the light would be +more clearly noticeable than on an open stretch of moonlit road. The +overhanging trees would break the attack more or less, which accounts +for the comparative slightness of his own injury. The primary object +of attack being the lamp, the rider would have the chance of escape, +whereas if he had been struck actually in the open, at full force, he +would have been probably killed on the spot." + +The whole theory was fairly ingenious, but it didn't account for the +wrecking of the bicycle, for its being found where it was, some +distance clear of the woods and near the man's own body. I told +Lessing so. He looked at me queerly. + +"Have you ever seen a dog worry a stick?" he asked. + +"We aren't dealing with dogs." + +"Whatever wrecked the bicycle could have dragged it that distance." + +"If your theory has anything in it the bicycle was carried. If it +had been dragged they would have found traces. Don't tell me that +any animal capable of such insensate fury as you suggest would have +had the intelligence to conceal its tracks!" + +We were both getting rather heated over the argument. It seemed to +me that Lessing was bent obstinately on maintaining his own views, to +the point of extravagance. For my part, I was equally positive that +the affair was due to some human agency. Neither of us, therefore, +was aware of a shadow in the doorway until Mary Lessing's pleasant +mocking voice broke in upon our discussion. + +"What on earth," she said, "are you two people scrapping about so +vehemently?" + +"We weren't scrapping," I smiled. "We were discussing a problem--you +might call it a scientific riddle. It concerns the law which governs +the movement of bodies through space." + +Mary turned on me her invariable reproachful glance when she +suspected that anyone was making fun of her. She sat down, pulling +the pins from her hat, and let the sunlight strike on her roughened +bronze-coloured hair. + +"Is it anything," she inquired, "with which my inferior feminine mind +might be capable of grappling?" + +"Certainly," I returned promptly. "We will illustrate it with the +simple objects now before us. How would it be possible, for +instance, for that extremely solid book-case to be moved, say, to the +other end of the room, without being dragged or carried?" + +Mary affected to consider, her head on one side. + +"Simple enough," she said, laughing. "It would have to fly through +the air, that's all." + +There was a moment's silence in the room, while I looked at Lessing +and he looked at me. + +"Suppose we have some tea?" he said then. + + + + +X + +THE CHICKEN-HUCKSTER'S HOUSE + +It was the last week-end in August that Herrick arrived. For nearly +two days before it had rained steadily, and I had spent the time +indoors, discounting old scores in the shape of letters, and +enlivened only by a visit from Lessing, who walked over in oilskins +on the Thursday afternoon to spend a couple of hours smoking on a +sheltered corner of the front porch. The weather lifted on Friday +night, and by Saturday morning the roads were passable. As I did not +expect Herrick before the 5.40 train I took my bicycle out after +lunch and went for a spin to stretch my limbs. + +I set out by way of the village, posting my letters on the way, and +intending to make a circuit that would bring me home from the +opposite direction. I managed, however, to lose my bearings, and +after some fruitless bungling stopped at a farmhouse to ask my way. +The farmer seemed rather less taciturn than most of the folk about, +and readily pointed me out a short cut which, according to him, would +bring me out at the cross roads just above the dam. + +The road, which lay for the first few miles through cultivated land, +entered eventually upon a stretch of sparsely wooded country, +desolate and inhospitable enough. Stunted spruce trees, powdered +with blue berries, clung tenaciously to the barren ground, and +everywhere the grey monotonous boulders cropped out, scattered as +though in the idle finish to some giant's play. Their uncouth +rounded outlines suggested from a distance a field dotted with grey +misshapen sheep, for ever movelessly browsing. The road was bad; a +horse would have had difficulty in picking his way, and I cursed the +well-meaning farmer roundly as I dismounted to push my heavy machine. + +A little distance on, however, things became better. I reached the +beginning of a wood, gaunt ragged hickories interspersed with tangles +of wild grape-vine, and matted creepers, and a few hundred yards +beyond a broken snake-fence suggested the whereabouts of a house. + +I came upon it at the turn of the road, a square, red-painted frame +house and barn, surrounded by a medley of small sheds and outhouses +in every degree of dilapidation. There was no gate, merely a couple +of bars let down in the fencing, and I left the bicycle a moment and +went inside. + +The yard upon which I entered was a litter of old junk of every +description, ancient packing-cases, broken barrels, scrap-iron, and +bones flung into piles. The wagon-ruts leading up to the house were +sunken deep in filth, and an indescribable odour filled the air, in +which the smell of badly kept fowls predominated. They ran +everywhere, a ragged nondescript crew, scratching, cackling, gazing +at me from evil yellow-rimmed eyes. Many more were confined in the +coops, mere oblong boxes of lath from which protruded gaunt heads and +outstretched necks, whose mournful protest mingled with the clamour +of their untrammelled brethren. So far as I could see, every shed +held its prisoners, all in the same state of filth and neglect, a +sore to the eyes and offence to the nostrils. There was that in the +look and smell of the place that stuck in my throat, used as I was to +poverty in both town and country. There seemed no one about, and +after a moment's hesitation I retraced my steps across the black mire +of the yard and regained the roadway. + +On the opposite side of the way a little ragged girl of about +thirteen watched my retreat with keen eyes. She had been in the +woods gathering the small uneatable nuts that children call +pig-hickories; her apron was filled with the green unripe hulls. She +grinned, backing a little at my approach. + +"Hello, sis," I said. "Who lives in that house there?" + +"'S Mister Menning's." + +"Ah!" I took another backward glance at the ill-kept yard, with its +indescribable litter. As I did so a low moan, almost human in its +misery, came from the barn behind the jumbled sheds. It was +repeated, long-drawn and mournful, the protest of a dumb thing +exhausted by suffering. I turned to the child sharply. + +"What's the matter there?" + +"It's the cow." She shuffled her bare toes in the dust, looking with +a fascinated curiosity towards the place whence the sound came. "She +hollers awful sometimes." + +"Is it ill?" + +"Mennin beats her." She said with the curious indifference of the +country-bred child towards animal suffering. "He's allus beatin' +her. Gran'pap's spoke to him, onct. He says she don't make no +profit an' Gran'pa says she can't make no profit if he's allus +beatin' her." + +I remembered her face suddenly. + +"Aren't you Mrs. Nevill's little girl, from the Bend?" + +"Yep. Gran'pa's house is jest back there." She jerked her head up +the road. + +"How's your mother? I'll step in and see her, as I'm here." + +"Mother's up. She's been washin'." + +She began to retreat up the road, with the sudden movement of a +half-wild thing, and I followed her, glad enough to turn my back on +the chicken-huckster's dwelling. The moaning of the cow was in my +ears again as I walked on. + +I knew the Nevills' cottage, and my road from there lay straight +enough. I had never approached the Bend before from this side, and +so the lie of the land was unfamiliar to me. The Nevills were one of +the few Irish families about. The household consisted of a rheumatic +old grandfather, his daughter, whom I had attended a short while ago, +and her husband, a steady young fellow who worked at a harness +factory in the village. + +Paddy was an old sinner if there ever lived one, but now, along in +the green seventies, he confined himself to the cultivation of +religion and the smoking of a particularly vile corncob pipe. He had +been employed most of his life on the railway, and his rheumatism was +the result of six weeks' work in a flooded cutting. Providence had +released him some two years ago from a vituperative wife, whose +latter years had been soured by the burden of an invalid husband; I +gathered from the old man's talk that she had to her last day +regarded his rheumatism as a form of criminal idleness, and since her +death Paddy had taken a fresh lease of life. + +I found him on his usual corner of the cottage porch, his square old +head with its bristly jaws--Paddy still shaved once a week--framed by +the window-ledge and its row of flowering plants in tin cans. His +daughter was inside, getting supper, and the new baby lay in a +ramshackle baby-coach near Paddy's elbow. He was rocking the coach +with one toe on the wheel while he smoked, the smell of his +unspeakable tobacco mingling with that of the frying onions in the +kitchen, through the open door. + +I always felt like holding my breath when I approached the Nevill +cottage. The stuffiness was of that permanent, impenetrable sort +which seems to encompass the house solidly for a radius of five yards +at least. + +I sat down on the porch step and asked after Paddy's rheumatism. He +looked down at his feet, shapeless in list slippers, like fearsome +parcels. + +"I ain't long fur this world, doctor, and that's truth I'm tellin' +yer. Don't I know it? We ain't a long-lived fam'ly. Me father died +at seventy-eight an' me brother at eighty, an' I'm thinkin' I won't +be long after thim." He raised his voice suddenly to a shout, +without turning, "Mary, git a cheer out fur th' doctor!" + +I refused the chair hastily; the porch step at least bordered on +fresh air. + +"I've just come round by Aaron Menning's place," I said. "I met the +little girl there." + +Paddy's face darkened. + +"Ain't I allus tellin' the young limb I won't hev her hangin' round +the likes of thim dirrty Dutchmen! It's her mother'll be after +takin' the strap to her fur that. The place ain't fit fur a dog +these days. Did ye take heed to the cow there?" + +I nodded. + +"The poor baste do be after cryin' day an' night, like a Christian. +I've told him again an' again, but he's a bad man is Aaron. He's +took after his brother, an' that's sayin' ill enough of anyone. Ye +wouldn't mind Jake Mennin', doctor?" + +"No. It was before I came here." + +"Sure I've lived neighbors to thim fifteen years, an' I've seen +things to turn your stomach on yer. He had a bad streak in him, +Jake, an' it was the devil took him in the end. They had a little +girl there workin', the year before Jake died.... That's why I tell +Lizzie I'll break her neck before I see her hangin' round there. The +ould mother's a decent woman, or used to be. God knows the poor +soul's had enough to turn her crazy." + +"There is a mother, then?" + +"Sure, but ye don't see her nowadays. 'Tis Aaron keeps her to the +house, most like. I used to be civil spoke to Aaron a while back, +but sence Jake died there ain't no good to him at all. Would any +Christian man treat a dumb baste the way he does? An' he treats his +ould mother the same, if all's known." + +He pulled on his pipe. + +"Two weeks ago, it would be, as we saw her last. Yes, I mind now it +was the day I was thinkin' of puttin' the new winder-pane in. She +come over to borry a half-cup o' sugar, an' I says to Mary to let her +have it, the poor soul. She had her hand all wrapped up to here"--he +measured a space on his gaunt grimy wrist--"an' she says to Mary as +she'd scalded it in the kitchen. Aaron was away with the wagon, or +she wouldn't 'a' come then." + +"I suppose Aaron does a good business," I said casually. + +"By the talk he does. I do be thinkin' he does most of it in the +next county, fur I don't see him drivin' the village way more'n onct +in a week or so. He'll be gone three days on a stretch wid the +wagon, an' Lizzie's seen him come home mornin's wid the poor baste in +a lather. Lizzie says he has hundreds o' chickens there, an' he +can't be after sellin' thim all. They die on him all the time, fur +she's seen him pull 'em out o' the coops and throw 'em to the pigs." + +I asked after his son and rose to go, after turning the half of my +tobacco pouch into Paddy's old tin box. It was getting on toward +five o'clock, and I would have just time to clean up, get the mare +put in, and drive to the depot for the afternoon train. + + + + +XI + +JAKEY WALKS + +It did me good to see Herrick's cheery face on the platform, and to +feel the hand-grip he gave me. Our friendship dated back to college +days, and unlike so many of those early intimacies, it had +strengthened instead of decreased with the passage of time. Then, as +now, Herrick had been the same curious mixture of enthusiast and +practical hard-headed worker, and in spite of the inevitable +schooling of experience and years of exacting and often discouraging +labour, he had carried into the early forties a certain boyish +confidence, a freshness of outlook, which gave to one instinctively, +on meeting him, the impression of indomitable health and vitality. + +When we had tucked his valise into the back of the buggy and turned +the mare about, he looked at me with a laugh. + +"Well, Haverill, you look quite the country practitioner already! +Seven weeks' change--ye gods! But you haven't grown a beard yet!" + +"I'm keeping the beard for my leisure moments," I told him. "So far +they haven't been many." + +"Don't tell me this place is in the throes of an epidemic! It looks +like one of those ideal Sleepy Hollows where you get about one call +for whooping-cough every six months. I came here for repose, you +know." + +"Oh, you'll get it," I assured him. "You'll get the kind of repose +that keeps you awake nights wondering where it's going to hit you +next. They don't want a doctor down here; they want a new lunacy +commission officer, and the first suspect will be me. Oh, I'm going +to make you work, Jack! Have no idle dreams on the subject." + +"Work! You look as if you'd forgotten the meaning of the word! If +ever a man had the luck to stumble on a good excuse for a holiday +it's you. This air, this sky, these woods to fish and loaf in---- +Hello, what's up? The whooping-cough I spoke of, or have you +arranged a little semblance of business for my benefit! That good +lady seems about to welcome us with open arms." + +A woman was hurrying down the road toward us, from the direction of +my house. She had a gingham sunbonnet on which flapped at each step +as she walked, and on catching sight of the buggy with the familiar +roan mare in the shafts she waved her hand in unmistakable signal. I +pulled Bess up, and by the time the woman came pantingly abreast of +us I recognized her for Mrs. Sliefer, who lived in the first +farm-house beyond the Bend, past the cross roads. + +"I been to your house, doctor," she began, "an' Mis' Searle told me +you weren't to hum, so I come right on. My niece is took bad an' +she's been queer sence the mornin', and I'd like you to come straight +back with me an' see her." + +She spoke with an air somewhat of indignation, born of her toilsome +walk. Mrs. Sliefer was a stout lady, to put it at the mildest, and +the heat and exercise had obviously tried her. I leaned from the +buggy. + +"Get right up, Mrs. Sliefer! There's plenty of room, and you can +tell me as we drive." + +She hoisted herself laboriously into the buggy, with our combined +help, and collapsed, rather than sat down, between us. Luckily the +seat was a broad one. As it was, her generous proportions all but +crushed us. + +I kept the mare at a walk while Mrs. Sliefer told her errand. +Briefly, as I gathered from her rather spasmodic utterance, the facts +were these. + +Her niece, Rebecca Durn, who lived with Mr. and Mrs. Sliefer at the +farm, was keeping company with the young man from Haskell's grocery +store. The young couple were in the habit of meeting of an evening, +after Rebecca had washed her supper dishes, in the woods near the +sawmill, some fifteen minutes from the farm-house and in the line of +the short cut which the young man used to walk up from the village. +They usually took a short stroll about the dam before returning to +the farm, to finish the evening in the older folks' company on the +home porch. Yesterday, as I have said, was rainy, and Rebecca had +expected her sweetheart at the house. As he did not arrive, however, +and the weather had lifted since five o'clock, Rebecca, thinking he +might possibly have gone to the usual trysting-place, put on a shawl +and her rubber shoes and went out to find him. He was not to seen, +and she loitered a few moments in the neighborhood of the dam before +returning home. It was then just getting dusk. According to her +account, she was strolling near the saw-mill when the ghost of Jakey +Menning, surrounded by light and with flames coming from his mouth, +sprang out from the bushes and yelled at her. Rebecca, struck of a +heap, as she expressed it, had still the sense to turn and run, and +being a sturdy young woman she speedily outdistanced the alleged +ghost and gained the shelter of her own home. Once on the porch, +however, she collapsed in hysterics, and it was not until she came +to, a good half-hour after, that her aunt and uncle could learn what +had happened. Rebecca's sweetheart had meantime arrived, and being a +strong-minded young man had at once induced Mr. Sliefer to set out +with him, armed with a stout cudgel and the farmer's shotgun, to +investigate. They patrolled the neighborhood of the saw-mill +thoroughly, but needless to say nothing was found. + +Rebecca recovered, but this morning, on the matter being mentioned at +breakfast, had promptly gone off again into hysterics, a state which +had lasted all day, off and on, and which her aunt had been unable to +check. The hysteria had brought on sickness, and the girl, so Mrs. +Sliefer told me, was now in bed in a state of utter collapse. + +I told Herrick I would drop him at the house. + +"On the contrary," he returned, "I'll come along, with Mrs. Sliefer's +permission." + +We drove on accordingly, the three of us, covering the distance past +Dutchman's Hill and the Lessing's bungalow at a smart trot. A few +minutes beyond the saw-mill, along the road Mary Lessing and I had +taken some mornings ago, the Sliefer's farm-house came in sight, a +comfortable low-built dwelling standing back in a good-sized orchard +with the barn and out-buildings clustered near it. + +We found Rebecca in an upper bedroom, watched over by a mute and +scared-looking neighbor, who had been fetched in to sit with her +while her aunt was away. The girl lay in bed, her eyes rolling, her +hands twitching nervously on the covers. There was nothing alarming +in her condition, which had been brought about as much by Mrs. +Sliefer's well-meant home physicking as by the original fright. + +I went to the bedside and put my hand on her wrist. + +"Now then," I said, "what's all this nonsense about bogies? A big +strong girl like you ought to have better sense than to imagine such +things." + +She began to whimper. + +"I seen it--I seen it! It was all spoutin' fire! It was Jakey +Menning as sure as there's a livin' God! Oh-h--I don't want to look +at it ... I don't want to!" + +She went off into another hysterical spasm, and it took all my force +to hold her still while her aunt went for water. When it was over, +and she lay back on the pillows, still sobbing exhaustedly, I took +Mrs. Sliefer aside. + +"Give me pen and ink," I said, "and have someone drive down to the +drug store with this prescription at once. I'll wait here till it's +brought back. Your niece will probably be all right tomorrow, after +a night's sleep, but keep her in bed a day in any case." + +She took the prescription and gave it to her husband. We heard his +heavy boots creaking out to the back door. I turned to Mrs. Sliefer. + +"And now," I said, "you're a clever, sensible woman. What's your +idea of all this nonsense?" + +Mrs. Sliefer was obviously flattered by my description. She mopped +her flat round face, still shining from the walk. + +"Rebecca ain't no liar," she said. "She's a good up-standin' girl, +an' she ain't never showed no foolishness before this. We was +talking about Dutchman's Hill on'y a few nights ago, and Rebecca was +the first to laugh about it. 'I'd like to see the ghost'd scare me!' +she said, right there. No. Rebecca seen suthin, or she wouldn't ha' +come home the state she did. An' as for it's bein' Jakey, she'd +oughter know Jakey Mennin' well enough, seein' he's brought the wagon +round here time an' ag'n when Aaron was busy." + +"You don't tell me you believe in the foolish talk there's been, Mrs. +Sliefer!" + +She stiffened. + +"No, an' I ain't sayin' I do, but sperrits or no sperrits, Mr. +Sliefer's goin' to get to the bottom of this. Seems to me there' a +law had ought to deal with respectable girls bein' frightened out of +their wits ten yards from their own door-step!" + +"Listen," I said. "It seems that your niece has been the victim of a +very cruel and foolish practical joke, but there's no good going into +the matter here and now. Only look after her. If anyone is playing +tricks around the saw-mill, keep her away from there. She's in no +state to risk any more shocks. Don't let her go wandering about +alone." + +"I wouldn't ha' let her last night, on'y she was so sure of findin' +George Freeman there. Rebecca was born an' brought up here, and she +knows the woods as well as our own front yard. But there'll be an +end of these doin's, an' I told her so." + +"That's right." I paused a moment. "Who was here, the evening that +your niece spoke of not being frightened?" + +"Only us an' Mis' Scholl there, an' George Freeman. There wasn't one +of 'em would play a trick on her. An' George Freeman was in at the +house a'ready when Rebecca come runnin' back." + +I did not leave until the farmer returned, and I had seen Rebecca +already quiet and subdued under the influence of the sleeping draught +I had prescribed for her. Then Herrick and I drove home through the +dusk to the ruined supper which Mrs. Searle had prepared so +painstakingly for six o'clock. + +"Well," I said to him, "what do you make of it?" + +Herrick smiled. + +"Ghosts don't usually 'holler,'" he said, "and Rebecca seems to have +been very clear on the hollering, if on nothing else. I think we may +dismiss the theory of the defunct Jakey. And by the way, who was +Jakey Menning, and what is this extraordinary tangle about a place +called Dutchman's Hill?" + +I gave the mare a light touch with the whip. + +"We are passing Dutchman's Hill at this moment," I said, "and I'll +give you the history over our supper." + + + + +XII + +MR. CROWFOOT + +I outslept Herrick by a good hour the next morning; in fact, he was +already up and out by the time I came down to a belated breakfast. I +had one call to make in the village, and after that, Herrick being +still absent, I sat down on the porch with my pipe and a newspaper to +await his return. + +There was no mail for me at the office, only a couple of letters for +Herrick, forwarded from New York, and as I slipped these in my pocket +I wondered again at the curious silence of Lennox. Since that short +note from Queenstown I had heard nothing from him, and he had +neglected even to provide me with the promised address by which I +could communicate with him in case of need, an oversight by which he +had certainly secured to himself a free and uninterrupted holiday, +and which left me no choice meantime but to await his return or such +news as he might ultimately choose to send. I must admit that +Lessing's phrase "bolted" stuck unpleasantly in my mind, little as it +accorded with my estimate of Lennox's character. His haste to be +off, the lack of any communication from him since, had more than a +look of flight, but why, or from what he had bolted I was still at a +loss to understand. + +I was still turning this over in my mind when Herrick sauntered into +view down the road, accompanied by a stranger. Visitors were +sufficiently rare in the neighbourhood, and as the two approached the +house leisurely I studied the new-comer with some curiosity. He was +a small man, of apparently some fifty years, sparsely bearded, and +dressed in a very shabby knickerbocker suit of greenish tweeds. A +soft felt hat covered his head and at least half his forehead; he +wore dark glasses and carried a botanical collecting-box slung over +his shoulder. There was something quaintly rabbit-like in his +appearance, enhanced by the air of timidity with which he hung back +while Herrick strode forward to the porch to greet me. + +"I want to introduce Mr. Crowfoot," Herrick said, with a gesture +which had an effect of herding the mild little man up to the porch +step as he might have herded some curious and inoffensive zoological +specimen. "He is down here hunting orchids, and I came across him in +the woods and brought him along to have a chat with you. You might +be able to give him some hints about the country." + +I shook hands with the little man and gave him a chair on the porch, +where he settled himself shyly, his collecting-box across his knee. + +"I'm afraid I don't know much about the flora round here," I said, +"but I imagine Mr. Crowfoot will find a good deal to interest him." + +"Oh, I am only an amateur," said the little man. "I s---- I s---- +I s-s----" + +He undoubtedly did, and the reason for his shyness stood forthwith +revealed. He stammered, and had more than the usual sensitiveness of +his infirmity. + +"S-simply indulge a hobby," he finished heroically. "It gives me an +object for my leisure time. I s-s---- _presume_ you have lived here +some time, Mr.----?" + +"Haverill--Doctor Haverill," Herrick prompted. + +"Haverill." He repeated it in a certain child-like way, as though to +place the name definitely in his memory, and immediately I was +conscious of a liking for him. He was at once so diffident and so +meticulously polite. + +"On the contrary, I've been here only a month or so, taking a +friend's place for the time. The country about is delightful, so far +as I know it." + +"Delightful!" he echoed, and lapsed into a pleased silence, which +lasted so long that Herrick rose. + +"I want to change my shoes," he said. "I've been up to the neck in +bog. I don't know our resources, Austin, but I guess we can offer +Mr. Crowfoot a drink?" + +"Water--I should l-like very much a plain glass of water," said the +little botanist. + +"And a cigar at all events," I supplemented. "I should have some +pretty decent cigars somewhere around that my predecessor left here. +Look in the drawer in the surgery, Jack, will you?" + +Herrick reappeared a moment later with the box. + +"Excellent," said our new friend as he helped himself. "Excellent! +Apparently you d-d-don't care for these cigars then, Doctor Haverill?" + +I laughed. "Oh, I only smoke a pipe, as a rule!" + +"You make, if I may s-say so, a great error," he said gravely. + +He smoked for a few moments tranquilly, his gaze, behind the dark +glasses, seeming to rest dreamily on the stretch of road before the +house. + +"I suppose you are staying in the village?" I asked. + +"Over there." He made a vague gesture which included half the +visible landscape. "With some excellent people of the name of +S-S-Sliefer." + +"Oh, Sliefer's," I said, interested. "I know them slightly. The big +farm-house past the saw-mill." + +"Precisely," he agreed, and gave me a look before relapsing again +into silence. + +Our conversation, if it could be called so, languished. It was +evident to me that his shyness was battling with the desire to be +off--I judged that Herrick had fairly dragged him here out of a +mistaken cordiality--and after the exchange of a few more spasmodic +sentences I accepted his courteous and timid explanation that the +Sliefers dined at midday and would be expecting him back, and rose to +shake hands. + +"A queer chicken!" said Herrick as we watched his jerky little figure +disappear down the road. "I picked him up back in the woods there, +grubbing around the saw-mill, and brought him along for your +benefit--a quaint example of the Pennsylvanian fauna! Timidicus +professus, or ground-dwelling goo-goo bird. Difficult of approach +and does not thrive in captivity. Guess he's more than a bit batty, +by his looks." + +"Mrs. Sliefer never mentioned a boarder," I remarked. "He must be a +new arrival. It's to be hoped he won't come to any grief in his +grubbing around, as you call it." + +"Oh, the gods protect the innocent," laughed Herrick. "Even the +alleged ghost of Jakey Menning would have pity. By the way, the fair +Rebecca's tale is still firmly believed in, by the Sliefers at any +rate. The latest village version is that she was chased clear to the +garden fence and that her skirt still shows five scorched prints +where the ghostly fingers clutched. The neighbourhood must have been +quite worked up. It was bad enough when Jakey had the decency to +keep to one place at least, but now he has taken, like the wind, to +blowing where he listeth, folks are getting scary. I got that much +from our guileless little friend, though he professes himself to be +quite indifferent on the subject. Of course you, as the village +doctor, are above such gossip, so I thought I'd go gleaning for you." + +"Someone's doing it," I said. + +"Of course someone did, in the case of Rebecca at least. Real ghosts +don't holler, as I said before, and the blue-fire details smell +strongly of the common or garden matchbox. But as our little +professor-bird spends most of his time in the woods about there, I +thought his observations might come in useful." + +"Private detective, eh?" + +Herrick smiled. + +"Oh, I'm sufficiently interested in the Lessing problem to be anxious +to clear out the undergrowth, if you follow me. That done, one can +judge a bit more clearly. If there's any foolery going on we'll run +it to the ground, and Crowfoot may come in useful there." + +"I've a good notion," I said, knocking my pipe out, "to try some +watching round that locality myself one of these nights." + +"It wouldn't be any good," he returned, "for the simple reason that +Jakey wouldn't demonstrate to you or me any more than he's +demonstrated to Lessing. He chooses those he wants to favour. As a +matter of fact, by the aid of my bedroom window, the convenience of +which you have probably under-estimated, Austin, I spent last night +prowling myself. No, I didn't let you into it because I wanted to be +alone. Needless to say, there was nothing doing. But I've found out +one thing. There's someone else interested in the game besides us. +I don't know who. But we narrowly escaped collision, and gave each +other mutually a wide berth." + +"It couldn't have been the ghost himself, whoever he is?" + +"I think not. It was too obvious we were both out on the same +errand. Like the Irishman, we each thought we were someone else and +when we met it was neither of us!" He smiled at the recollection. +"Well, I suppose we'll get at the root of the thing some day!" + + + + +XIII + +AN AFTERNOON DRIVE + +It was towards the end of that week that we drove over to the +bungalow, one afternoon, for tea. The teacups were set out on the +porch, and Mary Lessing, in a white frock, sprang up from one of the +big basket-chairs to greet us with a comical dismay. + +"I've dragged you over here," she began promptly, "and now I'll tell +you the worst at once. There is not--one--lump--of sugar in the +entire house. I've looked. So either you will drink your tea +sugarless, smile sweetly, and say it doesn't matter, or else one of +you has got to come right down to the village with me and get some. +You can take your full choice about it. I'm glad to see you had the +thoughtfulness to drive, anyway." + +Herrick sat down with alacrity. + +"I am a tired man," he announced, "supposed to be on a holiday, and +I'm not going to the village to get anything till I've had tea, and +I'm not going to drink tea without sugar, not even if you promise to +smile in the teacup, Mary Lessing. So I guess it's up to you and +Haverill. And I think that after all my excellent instructions of +the past fourteen years you ought to be a better housekeeper. It's +scandalous and disgusting of you. Where's Dick?" + +"In the laboratory." + +"A day like this! I'll rout him out of that in just two seconds. +Ho, Dick!" + +There was no response, and he rose grumbling, and trailed round to +the laboratory door. Mary looked at me. + +"Do you mind?" she said meekly. + +I slipped off the mare's hitching-strap, and Mary climbed into the +buggy beside me. We took the road past Sliefer's, and it is to be +admitted that I made no effort to hurry. Our errand might reasonably +be supposed to take an hour, and since chance had so obligingly given +me that hour I was going to make the most of it. + +As a matter of fact, I got precious little good out of it. + +Romance probably demands, here, that I should describe how Mary and I +drove side by side through the mellow autumn-tinted woods, how we +spoke of the beauty of nature around us, and how gradually a sweet +sense of companionship grew up in our young and sympathetic souls. + +Instead Mary spoilt the whole thing by her hurry to get that sugar. +If the life of the whole household, including Herrick, had depended +upon it, she couldn't have been more sternly anxious to get to the +village, to buy that sugar and to convey that sugar swiftly and +relentlessly home. Looking back, I can see now that her attitude in +the matter was only part of a constraint that had been growing +between us subtly ever since Herrick's arrival. A certain frank +comradeship, as I had been pleased to think it, that had sprung into +being on the morning of our impromptu picnic, had wavered and +dropped, leaving nothing in its place. I could not decide that she +actually avoided me, though she certainly devoted a good deal of +attention to Herrick when we were all together. Be that as it may, +her professed anxiety on the sugar question that afternoon justly +irritated me. We began with constraint, and ended in something very +like open warfare. + +It was probably not the first time that a perverse imp of +circumstance, or call it what you will, has induced two young people, +who started out on apparently good terms, to waste the precious +moments of each other's uninterrupted company in being pointedly and +deliberately disagreeable, and that for no reason that either of them +could frame. The imbecility of that drive stands out in my memory +now. We should both of us have known better. The whole thing had +begun in such a meaningless way as to have no possible excuse. We +had started, as I say, on good terms, with every equipment for a +pleasant hour, and instead we each, in our own way, chose to behave +abominably. + +After one unique and disastrous attempt at conversation, I remember, +we said no more, but drove on side by side in a ridiculous and stony +silence, each thinking how disagreeable the other was, and wondering +mutually what we had ever liked in one another. + +There was the usual group of loafers gathered on the porch of +Haskell's grocery store when we reached the village. I left Mary +seated in the buggy outside while I went in to buy the sugar. A +brisk-mannered young man, with fair hair, served me, and it was my +fancy that he dawdled a little over making up the parcel. The +proprietor was busy near by at the time, and from the side-glance the +assistant gave him I gathered that the latter was purposely +stretching out his task to gain time. I was not wrong. Upon the +proprietor crossing to the back of the store, where the cash register +stood, the young man leaned forward across the counter. + +"Doctor," he began, "I would like a few words with you sometime when +you aren't busy." + +"Why, certainly," I answered. "Any time you like. You want advice +about something?" + +It was almost the first time I had had occasion to go into the store, +and the assistant was quite a stranger to me. I was probably known +to him by sight, but I wondered at his choosing such a confidential +way to approach me if he merely wanted medical advice; I kept the +same office hours as Lennox had done, and everyone in the village +knew where and when to find me. + +"I'm George Freeman," he said. "It wasn't advice exactly. I just +... wanted to see you." + +George Freeman ... suddenly I remembered. It was the name of Rebecca +Burn's sweetheart, the young man who had shown such decision on the +evening of the ghost scare at Sliefer's farm. I looked at him with +new interest. + +"I shall be in this evening after nine o'clock," I said. "Come round +to the house. You know where it is?" + +"Yes. I'll be round." + +"All right." I put down a quarter on the counter, taking up the +parcel he held out to me. As I did so a step creaked behind me and I +turned quickly. + +Aaron Menning stood near us. For a second his eyes moved shiftily +from one to the other; then he put up a hand to the greasy peaked cap +he wore. + +"Arternoon, doctor," he drawled; "arternoon, F-Freeman. Gimme some +p-plug terbaccer." + +His face was impassive and stupid, but when he pushed his cap back I +noticed the veins on his temples stand out. He approached the +counter with something of a swagger, his hands in the pockets of his +black oilskin coat, and spat on the floor. There was something in +the movements of the man which I disliked, at that moment, more +intensely than ever. He had a curious shambling way when he walked, +which, added to his thick-set figure, gave me the feeling of +something half animal, almost simian. It amounted to an actual +repugnance. I gave him a curt nod while I waited for my change, and +lost no time in hastening out to the buggy. + +I put the parcel under the seat and took the reins from Mary's hands. +Curiously, my mood of a few moments ago was all but forgotten as I +climbed in beside her. + +"Did the fellow say anything to you?" I asked her as we drove off. A +sudden suspicion had struck me when I came out and found her waiting +there. + +"Who?" + +"Aaron Menning." + +"No. I just saw him go into the store." + +She spoke with a studied indifference that put me on the alert. +Instantly I was sure that he had spoken. + +"Why do you ask?" + +I set my teeth. + +"Because if he had," I answered rashly, "I'd take the occasion to +break his neck next time we meet." + +Mary gave a soft little laugh. + +"Really, Doctor Haverill, I didn't know you were so violent." + +"I'm not," I retorted, "at least, not as a rule. But the sight of +that man always rouses in me a peculiar and earnest desire to kick +him." + +"I dare say he's really quite a simple and kind-hearted man," said +Mary, with no other purpose, I felt sure, than to irritate me. + +"The rugged exterior that hides a beautiful soul," I suggested, +remembering that sinister farmyard beyond the Bend. "That's as it +may be. The exterior is good enough for me, or bad enough, as you +choose to put it. If I get the report of a S.P.C.A. inspector on +that farm of his, as I intend to do one of these days, we'll see how +Aaron's simple kind-heartedness stands out." + +The words slipped out almost without my knowledge. Mary looked at me +quickly. + +"What's wrong at the place?" + +"Merely that the condition of it isn't particularly pretty. I +shouldn't have mentioned it. Only a man that keeps animals in the +filth and neglect that he does ought to be made an example of in any +civilized community. I don't know that there's anything to be gained +by interfering at the present moment, but I've seen enough to make me +keep an eye on him." + +For a little time we drove in silence. Mary's face was grave and +troubled. I was angry with myself. I was a fool to mention Menning +or his place at all. Presently I turned to her. + +"Look here, you're not upset by what I said just now? Because you've +no need to think twice about it. I said it because ... well, because +I hated to hear you speak about him that way, even for a minute." + +"No. I wasn't thinking about Aaron just then." She gave me a queer +little smile. "Doctor Haverill, I guess I've behaved pretty +abominably this afternoon." + +I flicked the mare with the whip. + +"Shall we say we both did, and call it quits? I suppose it was in +the air, somehow." + +"In the air," she repeated, smiling again, then shivered suddenly. +"Things are in the air ... that's just it. I had a dream last night. +I suppose you'll call it silly nonsense, but it's made me queer and +restless all day. Doctor Haverill, has Herrick said anything to you +about my brother yet?" + +"We talked one evening." + +"Well?" + +"We ... didn't get to any conclusions, that's all. He has some +theory. He hasn't told me yet what it is." + +She looked at me steadily. + +"If he said that, it is because he knows something. I am absolutely +certain of that. And if he knows ... Doctor Haverill, you are +keeping something back from me, you and Herrick together!" + +"I am not. I wouldn't do it." I looked at the girl beside me. "If +you want me to swear." + +"No." She put out a hand. "Yes, one thing. Can you swear to me +that to your knowledge there is no suspicion in his mind of any ... +brain trouble with Dick?" + +"Yes, I can swear to that, absolutely!" + +"I am glad." She was looking straight ahead, down the road before +us. "I don't think even Herrick would have kept that from me, if he +thought it. Well ... I suppose I've got to wait." + +We spoke of other things during the rest of the drive, and she did +not once mention Herrick's name, or her brother's, again. We were +passing Sliefer's place when I caught sight once of our queer little +acquaintance of the morning. He was just turning in at the gateway, +his hat pulled well forward, his little tin box under his arm, and I +nodded to him as we drove by. He jerked his head in response, +peering short-sightedly up at the buggy through his round dark +glasses. + +"What a funny little man!" said Mary, after we had passed by. "Is he +staying down here?" + +"At the Sliefers'. Herrick found him in the woods this morning. He +appears to spend his time orchid-hunting in the neighbourhood." + +"Orchid-hunting..." said Mary. She turned her head and looked back +at Mr. Crowfoot rather deliberately. Following her gaze, I was +surprised to see that he too had turned, and was standing looking +after us from the Sliefers' gateway. Seeing himself observed, he +moved hurriedly, and disappeared in the direction of the house like a +disturbed rabbit going abruptly to earth. + + + + +XIV + +THE CRY IN THE NIGHT + +A few minutes after we reached the bungalow Mrs. Searle appeared. +She brought a letter for Herrick which had come by the afternoon mail. + +"It had a special-delivery stamp on, so I thought it might be +important," she said. "Pete was busy, so I took the liberty of +bringin' it over myself. I was glad of the walk, anyway." + +I had my own opinion of Pete's busyness, when it came to an errand up +the hill, and I tried to catch Mrs. Searle's eye, but her gaze was +discreetly lowered. + +"It's awfully good of you," said Herrick. He slipped the envelope in +his pocket, with a glance at the writing. "Won't you rest a minute, +Mrs. Searle? I'm sure Miss Lessing would like you to." + +Mary was getting tea at the moment, but Lessing seconded him +promptly. Mrs. Searle shook her head. + +"I'll be gettin' back, sir, thanks just the same. There's things to +see to. It's done me good to get the walk." + +"You needn't walk back, anyway," I put in. "I'd be glad for the mare +to be home, and Mr. Herrick and I can walk over, later. You can +drive yourself, Mrs. Searle, can't you?" + +"Certainly, sir, if you'd rather." + +She untied the mare and turned the buggy carefully around before +getting in. "Ask Pete to give her a good rub down," I called. "Mr. +Herrick and I will be back by supper-time." + +As it happened, we stayed fairly late. The tea resolved itself into +a semi-supper, with the addition of chocolate cake, canned pineapple, +and sardines prepared by some special and deadly recipe of Lessing's +in a chafing-dish. It was a combination that induced a certain +languor afterwards in soul and body. Later, Lessing having +re-engaged Herrick in the game of chess that our return had +interrupted, Mary and I found ourselves once more left to each +other's company at the far end of the porch. She had attempted some +quite ridiculous excuse about dish-washing, but either the sense of +Herrick's near presence or the meal just finished lent me moral +courage to vanquish her objections on the spot. + +"Either you invite people to your house," I said, "or you don't +invite them. If you do, it's your business to entertain them. I'm +not an exacting person, but if it comes to contesting my rights +against those of mere crockery, I warn you that I'm going to be +exceedingly disagreeable." + +Our talk on the homeward drive had broken the aloofness of the past +week, and I was minded not to let her slip back into it at will. She +sat down on the wicker armchair opposite me, her hands folded on her +lap. + +"Would you like to see the family photograph album?" she suggested. +"We none of us collect picture-postcards, so I'm afraid that's the +only interesting object I can offer you. Or I might take you round +the garden and show you the site for next year's rose bushes." + +"I should be delighted!" I said ruthlessly. + +She made a mouth at me. + +"I don't think you are in a mood to appreciate the exquisite +sentiment of next year's rose bushes," she returned. "It calls for a +totally different range of sympathies from yours." + +I lit a cigarette. + +"You don't know anything about my range of sympathies," I remarked. +"For all you know, they may extend to objects even more ethereal than +unborn roses." + +"Impossible!" She pulled a spray off the woodbine that grew round +the porch pillar, and began to pull it to pieces, leaf by leaf. "By +the way," she said after a moment, "did you tell me that that queer +little friend of yours was a botanist?" + +"Of Herrick's," I corrected. "I entirely disclaim him. He described +himself as an amateur, whatever he may mean by that. I gather that +it's his way of amusing himself on a holiday. There are a good many +people who seem to feel lost unless they have some definite hobby for +their vacations. I suppose really it gives him mild exercise and an +excuse for grubbing about in the open." + +"He takes other mild exercise," said Mary, her mouth curving in +sudden recollection. "He was engaged in some the other morning, and +that's what made me so interested. I'm afraid I interrupted him." + +"You'd seen him before, then?" + +She laughed. + +"I was taking Leo for a run before breakfast, down the hill, the +other morning, and I came upon him just in the hollow there near +where the stream is, and I'd give you a hundred dollars to guess his +occupation. I don't know if you've ever noticed a cedar there, +Doctor Haverill, growing quite near the road, on the right-hand side? +It branches off some little way from the ground. Well, there he was +engaged, of all things in the world, in solemnly climbing up into +this tree and jumping out again. I was walking along the footpath +where the ground is soft, so he never heard me coming, and the +performance struck me as so interesting that I stood still for a +minute and watched him. He did it four or five times, and it looked +as if he was trying to see how far he could jump. The last time he +landed quite near to the edge of the stream, and that seemed to +satisfy him, for he didn't try any more after that. Then he looked +about on the ground and began to smooth over all the footprints he'd +made. He'd just finished when he caught sight of me. He had taken +his glasses off for jumping, I suppose in case he smashed them, and +as soon as he saw me he grabbed them out of his pocket and walked +off. It was for all the world as if he was ashamed at having been +caught doing it. I suppose it did look ridiculous for a man of his +age to go doing stunts like a schoolboy. I guess it was some sort of +an exercise, and he does it pretty often, for he was certainly active +at it. I thought maybe he was a physical-culture crank." + +"A mild lunatic, more like!" I smiled. "Perhaps the giddiness of +youth returns to him at times and he has to work it off. Maybe it's +a religious exercise--some obscure sect of jumping Baptists. I'll +ask him when we meet." + +Mary laughed, but her brows were drawn in a puzzled frown. + +"Do you know," she said, "I have a conviction that I have seen that +man before. I don't know in the least why. Generally I remember +people quite well. I feel that I have not only seen him, but spoken +to him. A thing like that bothers me, because I ought to remember +it. I will sometime." + +"You'd remember if you had spoken to him," I said. "He stammers +quite badly." + +"Then that settles it," returned Mary gaily. "I have only known two +people who stammered in my whole life, with the exception of Aaron +Menning, and one was a chemistry professor at school and the other a +spinster aunt!" + +My appointment with George Freeman was at nine, and it was nearly +that hour when we left the bungalow. Herrick and I walked briskly +down the hill, and as we passed Dutchman's Hollow I cast a curious +glance at the tree which had been the scene of Mr. Crowfoot's +acrobatic performances. It stood, as Mary had said, almost +overhanging the footpath, a strong twisted-limbed cedar, noticeable +as being the only tree of its kind along the road. The fork was a +good six feet from the ground, and I reflected that Crowfoot must +possess more agility than his appearance warranted. + +Herrick followed my glance. + +"A queer tree, that," he said. "Looks as if it had been stuck there +for some purpose. Do you ever notice, Haverill, how some inanimate +things--if I may call a tree inanimate--strike one unpleasantly? Now +that tree, to me, suggests a suicide every time I look at it. A man +might hang himself among the upper branches, and you'd merely take +his body for a part of the tree." + +"Another horror to the mystery of Dutchman's Hill!" I said lightly. +"Heaven's sake, Jack, but you're in a cheerful mood tonight! You +seem to have creepy things on the brain. It you stood and looked at +any tree long enough you could hypnotize yourself into seeing things." + +"I merely called it unpleasant," returned Herrick argumentatively. +"To me it is. You think that because I have taken a fancy to dislike +a tree I'm ready to imagine unpleasant things about it. I believe +that if it impresses me that way, for no apparent reason, it is +because the unpleasant things have in all probability already +happened." + +"Oh, argue that stuff with Lessing," I protested good-humoredly. +"It's more in his line. I heard you at it tonight. I'm a normal +man, and I object to having my free imagination harrowed over things +that don't count. That tree is a tree, and that's all about it." + +Our fooling had brought us to a pause at the beginning of the little +plank bridge, and Herrick, leaning against the rail, had employed the +interval in making a cigarette. He smiled, slipping his tobacco +pouch back, and began to feel through his pockets for the little +automatic tinder-box he always carried. He was methodical over +trifling things to a degree that occasionally irritated me. + +"Then go up and touch it," he said. "I would like to test that +sensitiveness which you boast that you don't possess." + +"All right." + +I walked up to the tree, impatient at my own encouragement of such +nonsense, and laid my hand on the trunk. Almost as my fingers +touched the bark I heard distinctly a low cry, cut suddenly and +horribly short. The woods, especially at night, are deceptive both +as to direction and distance, and, already half-expectant of some +trick, I could have sworn that Herrick himself had done it. I +wheeled on him angrily. He was standing in the roadway, the +cigarette at his lips, the tiny flame of the tinder-box flickering in +his lifted hand, and by its light I saw his face white and startled. + +"Did you do that?" + +"Do you think I'm a fool?" He caught my arm and swung me round, +facing the woods, of a sudden ominously silent. For a moment we +listened acutely. Then Herrick flung his unlighted cigarette away. +"Come on. It was over there." + +He started forward, in the direction where the dam lay, breaking +through the underbrush. I followed at his heels. Along the road +there had been still a glimmer of light, but once under cover of the +trees we stumbled through dense blackness, with nothing to guide us +save Herrick's vague sense of direction. Once he stood still to +shout. There was no answer. + +"Follow the stream," I said. + +We had struck the edge of it again; I felt my boots sink in marshy +ground, and thereafter we made quicker pace. The brook was narrow at +this time of year, running a mere trickle in its bed. It branched +off from the creek just below the mill sluice, and in spring carried +off some of the excess of water when the creek itself was swollen. +Just now, as I knew, there was a scant foot of water at its deepest. +I was taking no particular heed therefore to my steps when Herrick, a +few paces to my left, called out. + +"Take care!" he said. "We're nearly in the creek!" + +As he spoke I heard, somewhere near us in the darkness, the +unmistakable sound of rushing water. I stopped abruptly, bewildered, +with the sense of having somehow lost my bearings. As we were going, +the creek should have been a good hundred yards on our left. + +And the sound was not the sound of the creek. I had paused at the +moment near the edge of the brook; I could feel soft, saturated moss +underfoot, and I fancied that it grew even softer and damper as I +stood. Something swirled at my ankles, and taking a step forward I +was knee-deep in sudden icy flood. + +Incredible as it seemed, the stream was rising. I had barely grasped +the meaning of it when Herrick shouted again. This time he was +answered. A strong shout caught up the echo of his voice. + +"Hello, there! Where are you?" It was Herrick. + +And the answer came promptly, near at hand now in the darkness: + +"Hello! By the dam. Keep clear of the stream; the sluice-gate is +giving!" + + + + +XV + +SUSPICIONS + +The warning came just in time. Herrick sang out and sprang, and I +could hear the splash as he landed close beside me. Together we +forced a way through the bushes and tall weeds and began to scramble +up the sloping bank. It was a thicket of alders and brambles; the +briars caught and tore at our clothes as we pushed through. We came +out not far from the sluice, with the rush of escaping water still in +our ears, and above the turmoil of it I called again. + +"Where are you? Is there something wrong?" + +"I want help here!" + +The voice answered almost from under our feet, midway down the bank +up which we had just scrambled. In a cleared space of the little +thicket a man was standing; my eyes, used by now to the darkness, +could make out his figure outlined against the surrounding bushes. +It was Mr. Crowfoot, and he was bending over something that lay +stretched and ominous among the trampled weeds at his feet. I had +not recognized his voice in the darkness, though it sounded vaguely +familiar. Herrick reached him first, and was on his knees beside the +prostrate figure when I came up. + +"An accident, Haverill. I thought so. No, he's alive. How did it +happen?" + +"He must have fallen off the gate," said Crowfoot. In the excitement +he forgot to stammer. "I heard him call out and went down after him. +I had only just time to drag him out." + +Herrick wiped his hand on the grass. + +"Cut his head open," he said briefly. "I think there's an arm +broken. Give me a hand, Austin. We must get him up to the top." + +"Compound fracture and a broken collar-bone," said Crowfoot in his +precise tones, oddly precise even in this moment. "I'm glad you +gentlemen came along. The head wound isn't much, but there's +probably a slight concussion. If you will help me----" + +It struck me that he took the man's injuries with a remarkable +coolness, utterly at variance with the impression of nervousness he +had given me that morning. It was as if he were the medical man and +we mere lay beings who had happened along. Herrick growled. He had +found his tinder-box, and it flashed a tiny glimmer on the man's face. + +"George Freeman!" I exclaimed. + +"You know him?" said Herrick quickly. + +"The sweetheart of that girl at Sliefer's. He had an appointment +with me this evening. He must have been on his way----" + +I stopped short. I thought Crowfoot gave a faint exclamation, but he +said nothing. Together we got the limp figure to the roadway at the +top of the bank, and laid him down. Herrick turned to Crowfoot. + +"Was he with you?" + +"No. I was walking along the side of the dam. I often take a stroll +of an evening; I sleep rather badly without. He was lying at the +bottom of the sluice-gate when I found him, half in the water, and I +dragged him out. I supposed he had missed his footing in the dark +and cried out as he fell." + +Herrick and I exchanged glances. So far the story might be true; we +had both heard the cry. + +"Isn't there a railing?" Herrick asked. + +"It was broken," said Crowfoot, "and has never been properly +repaired. I have spoken about it several times at the farm, but Mr. +Sliefer has neglected to mend it." + +"That's so," I confirmed. "It's been broken a good three weeks. +Hardly anyone passes this way, now the mill isn't working, so I +suppose they haven't bothered." + +"Well..." said Herrick. He rose from his knees. "As he's known at +the farm he'd better be taken there. He must be properly moved. We +can't handle him like this." + +"I'll go and get help," said Crowfoot. + +Herrick looked at him squarely. + +"I prefer that we should go together," he said drily. "Austin, do +you mind staying here for ten minutes? I suppose you haven't your +revolver?" + +I hadn't. I carried one usually in accordance with Lessing's +suggestion, but at this moment it was locked in one of the surgery +drawers. + +"Never mind," I said. "I don't need it." + +Mr. Crowfoot hesitated. Then his hand slipped to his pocket. +Herrick had been cleverer than I gave him credit for. + +"If you allow me, Doctor Haverill," he said gravely, "I will leave +you my own. I should much prefer it. We are two, and it would be +better that you should not remain here unarmed." + +Again Herrick and I glanced at one another. + +"Do you usually carry a revolver when you take your evening strolls, +Mr. Crowfoot?" he asked. + +"It is a precaution," replied the little botanist, "which I consider +to be quite harmless. As you put a similar question to your friend +just now I presume the habit is not confined to myself." + +"Take it," said Herrick curtly. "We'll be back in a quarter of an +hour." And he disappeared with Crowfoot along the path toward +Sliefer's farm. + +Left alone, my first and perhaps pardonable impulse was to examine +the chambers of the revolver Mr. Crowfoot had just given me. One of +the cartridges had been discharged. I slipped it back into my jacket +pocket, where it would be ready to hand, and took out my cigarette +case. There was nothing to be done for the man beside me until +further help arrived. I reassured myself as to his condition. It +was as Crowfoot had said. The head wound had bled freely, but we had +already partially stanched it with Herrick's handkerchief. The right +arm and shoulder were fractured, and I suspected a rib as well. He +could not have fallen directly from the sluice-gate, but from one +side, with the bushes and the water to break his fall. If he had +struck one of the heavy timbers immediately below he would have had +his back broken on the spot. As it was he was in no immediate +danger, unless from a concussion the extent of which we could not as +yet ascertain. + +I sat down on the beam which marked the beginning of the sluice-wall, +and fell to thinking. The thing had not, to me, entirely the look of +an accident. Crowfoot, on a moment's consideration, and in spite of +the empty cartridge, I exonerated. Freeman had not been shot, and +Crowfoot could have had no object in pushing him over only to rescue +him afterwards, and undoubtedly he had saved his life. Possibly they +had quarrelled, and Freeman had lost his footing, which would account +for Crowfoot's prompt action. Crowfoot was staying at the Sliefers', +in the same house with Freeman's sweetheart, and where a young woman +like Rebecca is concerned there is always a possibility of +misunderstandings; but the idea of little Crowfoot playing the rustic +Don Juan seemed rather absurd. And that question of the sluice-gate +worried me. It had been a dry season, the water in the dam was even +lower than usual; there was no earthly reason why the gate should +give way just then with no extra pressure to account for it. + +Sitting on the wall, swinging my feet, with the sound of the water in +my ears, I found myself listening mechanically to its rush. Suddenly +a thought occurred to me. There had been no increase in the volume +of sound since I had been sitting there. If the sluice-gate had +given way only in part, the force of the escaping water would by this +time have widened the fissure. + +I rose, and walked the few paces to the top of the gate. + +It was as I thought. The lever that controlled the sluice had been +pulled half over. Bracing my feet firmly, I threw all my strength +against it. I had the force of the water to contend with; as I +pushed, the whole neglected structure of the gate seemed to vibrate +and tremble, but little by little I could hear the gush gradually +decreasing, the seething and bubbling below me quieted. + +I pushed the lever back as far as I could; it refused to go the whole +way, and I feared to do further damage unwittingly by forcing it. +But the greater part of the escape was checked. I went back to the +wall again and waited. + +The minutes dragged. It was a relief to see presently the glimmer of +a light through the trees and to hear Mr. Sliefer's anxious +deep-throated hail. They had taken one of the stable doors off its +hinges, and Herrick and the farmer carried it between them while +Crowfoot walked ahead with the lantern. + +I saw Crowfoot glance toward the sluice, but he said nothing. With +as little jarring as might be we lifted Freeman's unconscious weight +on to the door, and I took Herrick's place in the slow procession +back to the farmhouse. + +Mrs. Sliefer, with Rebecca, white-faced and stricken, met us in the +yard. They had prepared a room upstairs, and there we got Freeman to +bed and did all that was possible for him. Unconsciousness spared +him the pain of our handling; the fracture was as ugly a one as I +have seen. The concussion was graver even than we had supposed; it +would be days certainly, possibly weeks, before he would be in a +state to answer any questions. + +I decided to stay the night, and Herrick, with the Sleifers' hired +man, drove over in the buggy to take a message to Mrs. Searle and +bring back what was needful from the surgery. + +In his absence I set myself to gather what information I could from +the Sliefers themselves. George Freeman had been there that evening. +He had arrived earlier than usual, it being his weekly evening off, +and stayed only a short time, saying that he had an appointment in +the village. On Rebecca teasing him, he had said that it was a +business appointment and that she should hear all about it in good +time. + +He had left the house at a quarter-past eight. His appointment was +for nine, and it would have taken him nearly that time to walk over, +even by the short cut. It was already close upon nine when we left +the Lessing's cottage to walk home, and at least twenty minutes must +have elapsed before we heard Freeman's cry. How had he employed that +interval, and with what object had he lingered nearly three-quarters +of an hour near the dam? Instinctively I thought of Crowfoot. He +was not in the room, and in the light of what had happened I felt no +hesitation in questioning the Sliefers about their guest. + +He had come to them a fortnight ago, engaging his room by letter. +They often took a boarder in the summer, and someone who once stayed +there had recommended them to him. He was quiet and +pleasant-mannered, and anxious to give no trouble, an ideal boarder +from Mrs. Sliefer's point of view, though Rebecca inclined to +consider him "queer." He had stipulated for a ground-floor room, +explaining that for some heart affection he was forbidden to mount +stairs. (I smiled, thinking of the acrobatic exercises Mary Lessing +had witnessed.) They had accordingly arranged the back parlor for +him, which had a door opening directly on the side porch. His meals +were served to him there. Beyond the necessary service they had very +little to do with him. He was not at all talkative on account of his +infirmity, but always pleasant in manner. To their knowledge, George +Freeman had never so much as spoken to him, though it was his +unfailing joke to tease Rebecca about the "handsome young city +gentleman." + +So much for Mr. and Mrs. Sliefer's account. Rebecca differed. +Rebecca didn't hold with "queerness," nor with mucking one's room up +with rubbishy weeds, nor with going out at night to hunt toadstools. + +"Toadstools?" I said. + +"Fungy, he calls 'em. It's the same thing. He says there's some +that shines in the dark, like rotten wood. I've never seen 'em, nor +I wouldn't go touchin' 'em if I did. Anything would need to shine +good and hard for him to see it with those blue goggles on!" + +"Rebecca's jest set against him because he wears glasses," said Mrs. +Sliefer. + +"I like to see a folk's eyes," Rebecca insisted. "I hate to have 'em +lookin' at you when you think they ain't." + +For some reason she seemed to distrust Crowfoot, but there was +certainly no suspicion, even in her mind, of any possible quarrel +between the two men. Rebecca herself admitted his courage in having +pulled Freeman out. No mention was made of the sluice, and I +concluded that neither Herrick nor Crowfoot had spoken of it at the +house. + +Mrs. Sliefer volunteered to sit up with Freeman the first part of the +night, and having seen her settled in a capacious armchair near his +bed, I returned to Herrick in the parlor below. There was a couch in +the room, but we were neither inclined to make use of it. It was my +first chance of speaking privately to Herrick since his return to the +house, and having closed the staircase door leading upstairs, I told +him briefly all that I had learned that evening. + +"Crowfoot couldn't have opened the sluice," he said when I had +finished. "How does the thing work? Do you suppose Freeman could +have caught at the lever as he fell and pulled it over on him? It +doesn't sound likely." + +"Impossible. The lever works in the opposite direction." + +Herrick pondered. + +"He might have been fooling with the thing and opened it, and then +lost his balance trying to get it back." + +I shook my head. + +"He knows the dam well enough, and he doesn't strike me as the sort +of man to go fooling with a thing like that out of mischief. +Besides, he didn't fall from where the lever is. If he had, and the +sluice was already open, he'd have been soaked through and probably +drowned to boot. Remember the rush of that water! Crowfoot got him +out, and Crowfoot was only wet to the knees. He must have fallen +partially clear of the pool, across one of the timbers. The thing +looks much more to me as though someone had deliberately opened the +sluice on them while they were both down there. Either the machinery +stuck, or they were interrupted before they could do the worst. In +any case Crowfoot knows more than he has chosen to tell us. He may +be shielding someone; the whole business looks ugly." + +"I'm going to handle Crowfoot in the morning," said Herrick grimly. +"It's a case where he'll find it best to tell all he knows. A man +who goes hunting toadstools at night with a revolver lays himself +open to misconstruction." He stared a moment at the purple crocheted +mat on which the Sleifers' parlor lamp sat enthroned. "Why on earth +was he so keen on your keeping that revolver, I wonder?" + +"Possibly for the same reason that had caused him to fire one of the +cartridges himself, this evening," I said drily. + +"He had?" Herrick looked up. "Why didn't we hear the shot?" + +"It happens to be one of those special revolvers which are built to +make as slight a report as possible. I know the pattern. The sound +carries practically no distance. If Crowfoot carries that revolver +habitually it is because he has good reason to be afraid of someone, +and he wouldn't have used it without serious cause." + +"Have you any idea," asked Herrick, "what Freeman wanted to see you +about tonight?" + +"Yes," I said slowly, "I have. You know the night you came down +here, Jack? It was Freeman who was the most determined to sift that +ghost story to the bottom, if you remember. From all accounts, he is +not the young man to take half-way measures in a thing that concerns +his sweetheart. I think that he has been working on his own +initiative, that he found out something, and it was about that that +he wanted to see me. He made the appointment for after dark, at an +hour when he was not likely to be seen coming or going from my house, +and he even took the precaution of coming by way of the woods. +Someone had an interest in preventing him from keeping the +appointment. They watched him to the Sliefers' house, and laid up +for him by the sluice, which he would have to cross on his way to me." + +"You mean Crowfoot himself?" + +"Crowfoot wasn't here at the time of the ghost scare, and he didn't +know of Freeman's appointment tonight. Moreover, I don't think he +had even an idea who the man was till you flashed your lamp on him. +Remember it was pretty dark there. But two people might have known +of it. They were both in the store at the time. One was Mr. +Haskell, whom I think we may dismiss immediately. The other was +Aaron Menning." + +"Aaron Menning...." There was that in Herrick's tone that confirmed +instantly my own conclusions. "Then if that's so, Aaron Menning is +at the bottom of the ghost business, and of the whole Dutchman's Hill +story. Aaron, the pious chapel member! But why in heaven's +name----?" + +"There's a streak of insanity in the whole family," I said. "Don't +forget that Jakey was said to be half crazy. Aaron has the look of a +criminal degenerate. How on earth he has maintained his reputation +in the village so long I can't think. He is cunning and malicious, +if no worse." + +"I'd like to know just what hold that type of man could have over +Crowfoot," Herrick said. "Crowfoot comes in somewhere. If it was +Aaron pushed Freeman over, what reason could Crowfoot have for +shielding him deliberately? There's more behind it yet than we can +lay hand on." + +There was, but our plans for finding out were destined to receive a +rude shock in the morning. + +About two o'clock I left Herrick on the couch and went to take Mrs. +Sliefer's place upstairs. Against my will I half dozed in the +chintz-covered arm-chair, and through my brain there chased puzzling +dreams in which Herrick and I were trying feverishly to conceal +George Freeman's body in the mill-dam, while Crowfoot, continually +changing and rechanging into the likeness of Aaron, leapt up and down +from the dizzy heights of a butternut tree and chattered at us +angrily as he sprang. + +Herrick was already drinking coffee when I came downstairs. Rebecca +had brought it in, and with it a note addressed to me. + +I broke it open. There was a second bulkier envelope inside with the +note. Both note and address were printed in small neat capitals, +such as a child might use. + + +"MY DEAR HAVERILL, + +"I REGRET THAT I HAVE BEEN OBLIGED TO LEAVE FOR THE CITY BY AN EARLY +TRAIN, AND SO MUST POSTPONE THE PLEASURE OF MEETING YOU AND YOUR +FRIEND AGAIN TILL A LATER DATE. + +"ALEXANDER CROWFOOT." + + +On the second envelope was printed: + +"TO BE OPENED ONLY IF NOT RECLAIMED WITHIN THREE DAYS." + +"Stung!" said Herrick. + + + + +XVI + +I CATCH A BURGLAR + +I found Rebecca in the kitchen, weeping. It was easy to see that she +had spent half the night crying, and I hastened to reassure her so +far as I could as to her sweetheart's condition. + +"And now about Mr. Crowfoot," I said. "What time did he leave here?" + +"It must have been early," Rebecca answered. "I was down an' about +by five." + +"He gave you the note?" + +"He left it in his room. I went to put his coffee like I always do, +outside, an' the door was open. He left another envelope for mother +with his week's board in. His bed hadn't been slept in. He was +writin' in his room all last evenin', after he came in." + +"And his things?" + +"He didn't have more'n a suit-case, and he must have took that with +him." + +I went back to Herrick in the parlour. Crowfoot's enclosure still +lay on the table, and as I took it up to put it in my pocket I felt +sorely tempted to break the seal there and then. + +"So he's lit out, temporarily," said Herrick. "Well ... it doesn't +look particularly wise under the circumstances, but I suppose he +knows his own business." + +"Should we open the letter?" + +"No," Herrick said decidedly. "That point is quite clear. The +instructions are definite. He gives us a certain date, and if he +does not reclaim his letter personally by then we are free to act on +our discretion, but not before. Meantime we can only put two and two +together. Crowfoot was down here on some job in which he anticipated +personal danger, or he wouldn't have gone armed. The cartridge he +used was not fired on Freeman, and unless I am much mistaken the +affair of last night upset, or at all events abruptly altered, his +own schemes. He's learned something that we haven't, and I'd give a +good deal to know just what, but we can't force his hand. Unless I +under-estimate him, he'll turn up to claim that letter all right." + +"Unless----" I recalled the provisional clause on the envelope. + +Herrick smiled. + +"He doesn't strike me as the sort of person to step off a plank +bridge in the dark! That's a pure bit of dramatic effect, in my +opinion." + +When we had finished breakfast I drove down to the drug store and +telephoned for a trained nurse. She arrived by the midday train, and +Freeman's condition being satisfactory, I was able to leave him in +her charge and go home with Herrick. + +We refused the farmer's buggy and walked over, following the short +cut that had so nearly proved fatal to one man at least the night +before. The water below the sluice-gate was at its normal level, but +looking over we could see the line of uptorn weeds and flattened +grasses that showed where the brief flood had swept. An alder bush +on the left side, overhanging the timbered edge of the pool, was +partly broken, indicating the point of Freeman's fall. + +We examined the upper part of the sluice-gate carefully. On the wood +near the lever I found a few dried spots of blood. Herrick nodded +appreciatively when he saw them. + +"Looks as if Crowfoot's cartridge wasn't wasted! Someone got hit, +though not badly; there's none tracked along the road. My respect +for our friend increases. Austin, why was he so careful we didn't +see his handwriting?" + +"Give it up. He's a queer bird anyway." + +I told him of what Mary Lessing had seen that morning, by Dutchman's +Hill. Hitherto it had presented itself to me merely as a whim on +Crowfoot's part. Now I began to think he might have had some object +in the performance. Herrick smiled when it came to the jumping, but +his face grew serious again immediately. + +"Austin," he said, "I give you a problem. What is it about that +particular tree that attracts me and attracts Crowfoot? There's +something more than coincidence in it. Crowfoot wasn't amusing +himself. To my mind, he was testing a theory, and if we knew what +that theory was...." He broke off, thoughtfully, and I turned to him. + +"Well?" + +"Nothing much. Austin, whereabouts was Jake's body found, last +spring?" + +"Face downwards in the water, just near the plank bridge. Why?" + +"Taken with Crowfoot's action, does that suggest anything to you?" + +"Nothing to do with suicide. Jake had a fit and fell in the water." + +"Exactly." He walked a few paces in silence. "Has it ever occurred +to you what a really admirable country coroner you would make?" + +"I don't see what that's got to do with it." + +"Listen." He swung round. "Jake's death was not accident, though he +may have died actually in a fit. He was frightened by someone or +something that sprang out at him from that tree as he passed, and +Crowfoot, depend upon it, was merely trying to find out whether that +jump was within the limits of an ordinarily active man." + +We were both tired that evening and we turned in early after supper. +I had left instructions to call me if there was any change in +Freeman's condition, but I anticipated none before the morning. The +nurse seemed a competent woman, and I felt easy in leaving him to her +care. I slept like a log, my rest untroubled by any dreams. + +Towards morning, as it seemed to me, I woke up with that curious +sense of something happening which arouses one at times by appeal +through some subconscious perception. Five minutes before a +thunderstorm would have failed to rouse me; now instinct dragged me +up sitting in my bed, of a sudden keenly and alertly awake. + +I listened. Someone was moving in the surgery below. Mrs. Searle +went to bed always at ten, and I had the impression of having slept +already for several hours. I struck a match softly and looked at my +watch. It was a quarter to twelve, earlier than I had thought. I +felt on the bureau for my revolver, which I had taken to my room that +evening, and opened the door noiselessly. + +It was not Herrick, for I could hear his regular breathing through +the keyhole opposite. At the foot of the little flight of stairs a +faint light glimmered. The stairs opened directly from the surgery, +and it was my custom to leave the door at the bottom open during the +night. Now it was closed, and the light that I saw filtered through +the crack. I crept quietly down and pushed it open, revolver in hand. + +A pocket electric lamp lay on the desk, and by its light a man was +searching through one of the desk drawers. It was a small drawer +which had been always locked; I fancied that it contained some +private papers and affairs of Lennox's which he had put together +there before leaving. The man's back was towards me, but I +recognized instantly the shabby tweed coat, the soft felt hat pulled +low down over his head. It was Crowfoot. + +I don't know what I had expected; certainly not him. I lowered the +revolver and stepped forward. + +"Were you looking for anything, Mr. Crowfoot?" + +At the sound of my voice he turned; his hand shot out towards the +electric lamp, and instantly the room was in darkness. + +For a second we stood there, neither moving, and we could hear each +other's breathing across the room. + +"Light that lamp," I said quietly. "If you have any explanation I am +ready to hear it. I have a revolver in my hand, and if you attempt +to move I shall be compelled to treat you like any other common +housebreaker." + +"Listen here," he began, "and don't for heaven's sake play the fool!" +His voice sounded excited, impatient, but with an assurance in it +that was somehow vaguely familiar to me, and, as on the night before, +there was no trace of his usual stammering. It was the voice of a +man interrupted in important business rather than caught red-handed +in an attempt at common theft. "Put that revolver down, Haverill. I +tell you, you don't know what you're meddling with! I'm in a hurry. +Let me go out of the house now, without any questions, and I swear to +heaven I'll come back tomorrow and tell you everything you want to +know. I'll tell you everything! But don't stop me now!" + +"You will, eh?" + +I laid the revolver down on a chair that stood behind me, but only to +have both hands free. He made a movement, chancing the darkness, but +the room was too small. I collided with him somewhere near the +armchair--the solid mahogany caught my knee an ugly whack through my +thin pajamas--and for a moment we grappled together fruitlessly. + +"Haverill, you idiot--let me go!" + +He gasped and struggled, but I held my grip. + +"Not so easy. I want the lamp." + +He swore, wrenching an arm free, and the little white bulb glowed +out. He must have slipped it in his pocket when he turned. The +light shone on our two blinking faces. Crowfoot's hat had fallen off +in the struggle, and for the first time I saw him without his black +glasses. + +It was Lennox! + +Stupefied, I let go my hold. + +"Now will you let me go?" he snarled. + +"I thought you were in Europe! What's it all about? Are you crazy?" + +"Oh, you idiot!" There was a savage patience in his voice. "Get on +your trousers, then, and come along. You were always an obstinate +devil, Haverill! Bring that revolver with you and don't wake the +house, and don't for God's sake stand wasting any more time! I'll +wait for you." + +I ran upstairs. A hundred wild ideas passed through my mind as I +groped my way hurriedly into sweater and trousers, in the dark, not +even staying to light a candle. I hardly knew, in my bewilderment, +whether Lennox had been impersonating Crowfoot or Crowfoot Lennox; +the whole thing seemed inextricably and extravagantly mixed. +Curiously, Herrick had not even been roused by our scuffle. I +carried my boots down to avoid waking him now, and pulled them on in +the surgery. + +"Take your revolver," said Lennox. + +We passed out through the door; he had used his own latchkey to come +in with. + +"Will you tell me----?" I began, when we were clear of the house. + +"All in good time." + +A few paces up the road an automobile was standing. Two men were +already seated in it, besides the chauffeur. One leaned out, +watching, and he gave an exclamation as the two of us stepped into +the light of the lamps. + +"It's all right," said Lennox. He almost pushed me into the tonneau, +where I tumbled into a big broad-shouldered Irishman, and swung up +himself to the front seat. "This is Doctor Haverill; he's coming +along. Haverill, this is Mr. Keary, the county sheriff, and +Inspector McWade." + +The chauffeur let in the clutch and the big car swung forward in the +direction of Dutchman's Hill. + +"And now, Haverill," Lennox said, turning to me, "you wanted to be in +it, and you're in it. These gentlemen are accompanying me to the +Bend with a warrant for the arrest of the man known as Aaron Menning." + +"Ah!" I looked at the burly Irish inspector beside me, and the +conviction of yesterday grew clear in my mind. "For assault on +George Freeman!" + +"No," said the sheriff, speaking for the first time. "For the +manslaughter of his brother on the seventeenth of last March." + + + + +XVII + +A MIDNIGHT CHASE + +We swept on at a steady pace, through a silence broken only by the +throbbing of the engine and the hissing whir of tires over the dust. +On either side of the road the woods stretched black and inscrutable. +Just before we came to Dutchman's Hill Lennox said a word to the +chauffeur, and he paused to extinguish the two headlights. +Thereafter we drove more slowly. + +A few paces beyond the bridge, at the beginning of the hill, the car +stopped suddenly. Something had gone wrong with the engine, and +while the chauffeur got out to attend to it Lennox and the sheriff +took the opportunity to walk back to the bridge we had just crossed. + +"Have to get a light on it," the chauffeur said, unhooking one of the +side lamps. "The blame thing might have held out a bit longer! We +ain't far from Dutchman's Hill, by all accounts." + +"This is Dutchman's Hill," I said. + +"It is, eh?" He glanced at the inspector; who was holding the lamp +for him. "Well, they say one cuss leads to another, and be darned if +I don't give this place a worse name than it's had yet!" + +Alone in the car, I leaned back against the cushions, speculating as +to the chance that had drawn me into this midnight adventure and what +its outcome would be--the climax, for aught I knew, of all the +summer's mysteries. Of Lennox's part in it I could but guess, but +the experience of the last forty-eight hours gave me a confidence in +him that overrode all earlier impressions. Mentally I contrasted the +vision of Crowfoot, alert, cool-headed, decisive, with the Lennox of +my first evening's arrival, and marvelled at the grip he had brought +to bear on himself in the two months' interval. + +The air was still and oppressive in the hollow; the stench of +gasoline rose in a warm reek mingled with the stagnant smell of the +swamp close by. The mosquitoes were thick; they descended in swarms +upon us with the stopping of the car, and a host of moths and midges +fluttered round the lamp, attracted by its glare. The two men, bent +over the engine, joked and grumbled in undertones, as cheerfully as +though we were out on no more serious errand than a mere pleasure +ride. + +The sheriff rejoined us. + +"How long will you be, Jackson?" + +The chauffeur straightened his back. + +"Twenty minutes, sir, more or less. I can't fix it under." + +There was a brief consultation, and the sheriff turned to Lennox. + +"How far are we from the Bend?" + +"Three-quarters of a mile, by road. We can strike a short cut at the +top of the hill." + +"We'd better walk it. There's no good wasting time. Get your job +through, Jackson, bring the car on to the top of the hill and wait +for us there, along the road. I suppose..." + +Lennox caught my eye. + +"I can rely on Doctor Haverill," he said promptly. "As we are one +man short already I don't think it advisable that we should divide." + +"Very good. Have either of you gentlemen an extra revolver?" + +I pulled mine out and gave it to the chauffeur. He grinned +cheerfully as he slipped it in his pocket. + +"Right, sir! If any spook puts a game on me I won't start tellin' my +beads! Give me twenty minutes, Mr. Keary, and I'll have the car +right there!" + +We left him at his task and set off up the hill, following the little +footpath at the side of the road, Lennox and the sheriff in front, +the inspector and myself at the rear. When we were nearly at the top +the inspector paused. + +"There's fire somewhere," he said. "I can smell it." + +"Someone been burning bush, most likely," said Lennox. "We can tell +further on." + +At the top of the hill it was unmistakable, a sickly charred odor +that hung heavily on the air. Lennox gave an exclamation and +quickened his pace involuntarily. A moment later the Lessing +bungalow came in sight; there were lights in the windows, and I +caught sight of a slim shawl-wrapped figure on the porch. Lennox and +the sheriff were well ahead, and as they reached the bungalow someone +stepped out and joined them in the roadway. I heard Lessing's voice +raised in amazement. "Lennox, by all that's holy!" + +"It's Menning's place," said Lennox as we came up. "I thought as +much! The game's up." + +"Burned to tinder an hour ago," said Lessing cheerfully. "Hello, +Haverill! Have you all joined the local fire-brigade?" He caught +sight of the inspector's square shoulders behind me, and whistled. +"So that's it! Well, if you're wanting an interview with Menning, I +guess his present address is somewhere in the woods between here and +Coopersville!" + +We ran on hastily to the Bend, taking a short cut across the fields +behind the bungalow. It was as Lessing had said. The fire had +broken out some three hours ago, and his first intimation had been +the sudden lurid glare across the tree-tops as he sat on the porch +smoking a final cigarette before turning in. The house, a +dilapidated structure at best, had caught from the basement upward, +and by the time he arrived on the scene it was already beyond hope of +saving. He had given what help he could to the neighbours, hastily +collected, but with the limited appliances at hand the task was +hopeless from the first. + +The huckster's yard with its strewn debris, desolate enough by +daylight, was made doubly sinister by the red wavering light that +still played and flickered among the broken boxes and tumble-down +sheds, lit up the loathsome scrap-heaps and the trampled mire +underfoot. The prisoned chickens, startled from sleep, kept up a +mournful squawking, pushing and struggling in their coops. The +efforts of the men had been directed to the barn and cowshed. They +stood now, an awed, strangely silent little group, gathered near a +broken bureau and a pile of household goods that had been dragged +somewhere from the burning and huddled forlornly in the open yard. I +remember that a wooden clock, still ticking, and a filthy and ancient +foot-tub were among the collection. I spoke to one of the men; it +was old Paddy's son-in-law. + +"We done all we could; the old place was no better'n tinder. Pop was +fur lettin' it burn an' not lift a hand. We got Miss Mennin' out. +Hiram Scholl he bust the door in an' got her. She's over to the +house now. Aaron ain't here. It's funny about him. He ain't took +the horse anyway. They was sayin'..." + +He stopped short and looked at me, the glare of the fire on his +sweat-streaked face. + +"They was sayin' he started it. I dunno. It broke out downstairs. +They ain't no one seen Aaron." + +And after a moment he added: "He'd oughter be insured. There's no +savin' anything." + +I went back to Lennox and the sheriff, standing a little apart. + +"Aaron's gone," I said. + +"I know. There's nothing to be done here. We'll go and see the old +woman." + +I stayed behind with the inspector and Lessing while the other two +went over to the Nevills' cottage, and together we made a thorough +search of the barn and outhouses. There was nothing to be learned. +Filth and disorder reigned everywhere. To describe the condition of +the place, as we found it, would only be to recall the actual +physical sickness that overtook me during the task. + +The neighbours had gradually dispersed during our search. By the +time the others rejoined us the place was deserted. The fire had +completely burned itself out; only a tiny smouldering flame pulsed up +here and there, to die down again immediately into blackness. + +McWade and the sheriff exchanged a few words, and the latter turned. +"Well, gentlemen, I think there's nothing more to be done," he said. +"I expect Jackson has the car ready by now. We'll walk back to the +house, and if Mr. Lessing has no objection I should like a few words +with him before we go." + +We did not meet the car, nor was it in sight when we reached the +bungalow. Mary Lessing was on the porch, and while the others went +indoors I stayed outside to smoke a cigarette in the open air and +watch the road in case Jackson turned up. + +"I'm glad it was Menning's house, if it had to be somebody's," said +Mary, with really feminine lucidity. "I wanted to go, but Dick +wouldn't let me. I guess I wouldn't have been much use. Doctor +Haverill, is it ... Aaron they're after?" + +"They think he had something to do with that business last spring. +It's Lennox's story. I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. +Anyway I'll take back all I said against him last night." + +She had heard nothing of the accident at the dam, and I told her as +briefly as I could all that had happened since we left the bungalow +last evening. She listened breathlessly. + +"So it was Doctor Lennox all the time! Now I know why he didn't want +to meet me that morning. I was sure I knew him, somehow." + +"You were smarter than we were," I admitted. "He took us in. Only I +don't see why, now." + +"Sliefer's is near to Aaron's place," said Mary, "and if he was +watching Aaron he wouldn't want anyone to know who he was. You think +it was Aaron who attacked Freeman last night?" + +"I am nearly sure of it." + +Mary shivered. "It's horrible," she said. "It's horrible! I wish +now----" + +"What?" + +"I wish I'd known," she said quickly. "That poor girl! I shall go +over and see her first thing tomorrow. I know Rebecca quite well. +We get our milk from there." + +"Do," I said. "You'll cheer her up a bit." I rose as I spoke and +peered down the road. "It's time that car put in an appearance." + +"Your car? Where did you leave it?" + +"Just down the hill there. It had a breakdown," I explained. "The +man was going to catch us up." + +"I thought I heard a car," she said, "a little while ago. It was +while you were over at the fire. It didn't come past here. Do you +suppose Menning knew what you came for?" + +"Lennox thinks he must have suspected it. Anyhow he's far enough +away by this time." + +She looked at me, as I thought, a little uneasily. + +"You aren't afraid of Menning?" I exclaimed. "Far or near, he'll +take good enough care to keep out of anyone's way just now. Well, +I'll go and see if I can find the car. He may have misunderstood the +directions. You might tell the others if they're looking for me." + +As it happened, I had barely gone a dozen paces up the road before I +heard the cheerful approaching throb of a motor, and a moment later +the car, with Jackson in it, swung into sight. + +"I was just coming along to look for you," I said as he drew up. "I +thought you'd missed us." + +"Thought the spooks had got me!" He grinned appreciatively. "No, +sir! I just pulled up the road a bit--didn't know which way you'd +gone. I guess they weren't huntin' company tonight." He laughed. +"Mighty thick these woods are. I don't know this part of the country +much. Do you get any big animals, round about?" + +"Nothing bigger than a badger," I said. "Why?" + +"There was something crossed my path, coming up the hill there. It +might have been a dog, now I think of it, but it didn't look like no +dog I've ever seen. Rather high in the hindquarters, and grayish ... +I on'y saw the back of it. It slunk off in the bushes as I come up." + +"There aren't any very big dogs that I know," I said, "except Mr. +Lessing's setter, and that's generally chained up at night." + +"It weren't no setter," said Jackson. "Weren't the build of a +setter. And it weren't no badger, for I've seen 'em. Low-running, +brownish beasts they are.... Is this the house, sir?" + +We drew up outside the bungalow, and I jumped down to join the +others, waiting on the porch. + +"It wasn't anything _like_ a dog, now I think of it," said Jackson. + + + + +XVIII + +LENNOX'S STORY + +Lennox's face, when the car had deposited us once more at our door, +expressed utter chagrin and annoyance. He flung himself down in the +surgery arm-chair and lit a cigar. + +"That's what comes of not acting on the minute," he said. "I had my +hand on the man last night. I tell you, Haverill, you can't drive +plain facts into people's heads. There's formality and formality, +and the end is your man gets a clear twelve hours to lay his plans +and the game's up." + +"Bad luck," I rejoined. + +He sat staring moodily down at the carpet. + +"While I think of it," I remembered, "I've got some property of +yours. You might as well have it back." + +I pulled out the envelope he had left for me that morning. Lennox +took it without a glance and thrust it into his pocket. + +"Considering that I didn't have the opportunity to open it," I +remarked, "I think you might let me into the story now." + +He pulled out his watch. "Well, I don't know but what sleep's out of +the question, anyway, tonight. Get the whisky out, Haverill, there's +a good chap, and we'll go into it." + +"One moment," I said as I unlocked the cupboard. "Have you any +objection if I fetch Herrick down?" + +"Not in the least." + +I roused Herrick accordingly, and he bundled sleepily into a +dressing-gown and joined us below, where his sleepiness rapidly +vanished in the few moments that it took to grasp the new turn of +events, and the part that Lennox himself had played in last night's +happenings. + +Put briefly, this was the story as Lennox put it to us, gathered +round the surgery table in the chilly half-hour that precedes dawn. + +The Menning household, when Lennox first came here, had consisted of +the two half-brothers, Jake and Aaron, and the old mother, who kept +house for them and helped more or less in the business. They were of +Westphalian origin, but had settled in this country for two +generations. The mother, according to Lennox, was a curious survival +of the original peasant stock. Stolid, hard-working, and +uncommunicative, she preserved always a certain aloofness from her +neighbours, a taciturnity that marked her out even among the Dutch +families about. She had preserved a great deal of her native +superstition and traditions, and was reputed to have a great +knowledge of herbs and some skill in home doctoring and decoctions, +when she could be induced to use it, by reason of which the +neighbours, ready enough in such gossip, believed her to have actual +powers of witchcraft. Superstition dies hard, even in a new country, +and there was at all events a marked unwillingness among them to +annoy or "cross" her in any way. About thirty years ago she had +married a young Pennsylvania Dutchman, Menning by name, who had +deserted her shortly after. Aaron, their son, had his mother's +characteristics in a modified degree. He was inclined to be +friendly, if not sociable, a good business man, thrifty but +honest-dealing, and very religious. Jake, the half-brother, was some +years older than Aaron, and, in Lennox's phrase, a "throw-back." +There was considerable mystery and gossip about his birth. Some said +that he was born before the mother's marriage, some after. He was +certainly only half related to Aaron, and the wide difference between +them was in curious contrast to their strong physical resemblance, a +result in both cases of the virile persistence of the mother's +peasant type. Jakey was mentally deficient, but not enough to debar +him from ordinary tasks. He occupied himself in the huckstering +business, and took the wagon round in turn with Aaron, week and week +about. In many ways he could be trusted, but he was malicious and +cunning, and the bad streak seemed to predominate with age. Lennox +never considered him safe. There was always the possibility, in his +opinion, of a serious outbreak, and he had even gone so far as to +suggest to Aaron the advisability of having him put under definite +restraint. At first Aaron had been disposed to consider the idea +favourably, then later, for no given reason, he changed his mind. +His manner, at about this time, in regard to any discussion about +Jakey, changed also so noticeably that Lennox supposed there must +have been words between Aaron and the mother about his (Lennox's) +interference in the matter, and that Aaron had perhaps been naturally +induced to range himself upon the mother's side. Lennox urged him at +least to have his brother medically examined, but he always met with +a dogged refusal. + +"Jakey's all right in the daytime," Aaron persisted. "He ain't doin' +harm to nobody. Nights we lock him in." + +Once only he went so far as to say that if it became necessary he +would take his own steps in the matter, rather implying a resentment +at outside interference, and Lennox, to avoid making further bad +blood, was forced to let the matter drop. So things went on till +last March, and the events which led to the finding of Jakey's body +by the creek at Dutchman's Hill. + +Lennox saw the body, and there was no doubt in his mind at the time +that death was due to an epileptic seizure. There were no marks of +any sort on the body. The ground was fairly soft at the time--a thaw +had set in that same afternoon--but there were no footprints to be +found other than those of the man himself, leading down to the creek, +and the tracks of some large dog which had evidently passed that way +in the night, sniffed at the body and gone on. At the word "large +dog" I saw Herrick shift in his chair. + +"Do the Mennings keep a dog?" he asked. + +"A watchdog, I believe. Most people do." + +"Nothing else was found near the place?" + +"Nothing but this, which I myself happened on a few days later. +Either of the brothers might have dropped it, or it might have been +dropped by another person altogether. It was lying some little +distance from the creek, beyond the bridge there. The inspector +attached no particular importance to it. There is a certain amount +of traffic along this road, and there is no indication that this +wasn't dropped by some passing person a day or two after the body was +found." + +He drew from his waistcoat pocket a small round silver object, +slightly larger than a pea. + +"Looks like some boy's treasure," I said. "A button, isn't it?" + +"It has been a button," Herrick said. "The shank has been broken off +and it's been hammered. Well, Lennox, go on." + +"Of course there was an inquest," Lennox said. "They found that the +man died during an epileptic seizure, which carried out my own +conclusions. And now I am coming to the queer part of my tale. It +was Aaron who formally identified the body. I saw him and spoke with +him at the inquest, and I saw him again the day after Jakey's +funeral." + +He paused. + +"Six weeks after the inquest, Haverill, I was walking down the short +cut from the Bend, and I met Jake Menning face to face. I am as +certain of it as that I am sitting here. He made off without giving +me a chance to speak to him. But that it was Jake, in solid flesh +and blood, I had no shadow of a doubt. + +"The next day I went to the house. I asked for Aaron. The old woman +met me. She said that Aaron was away with the wagon. I asked when I +could see him, and she became evasive. It seemed that he was very +busy, that he was away a good deal of the time; she could not say at +all when he was likely to be found. + +"Her answers, and more particularly her manner, set me to thinking. +I had not seen Aaron since the day after Jakey's funeral. No one, so +far as I could learn without pushing inquiries unduly, had seen much +of Aaron since the inquest. His trade had always lain further afield +than the immediate neighbourhood, where most people raised their own +chickens for use, and few in sufficient quantity to sell. Mrs. +Searle had seen him, certainly, and Mrs. Searle had remarked a change +in him. She said that he was queer and silent; she thought that the +shock of his brother's death had preyed on his mind. In her own +words, he was 'getting just like Jakey in his ways.' + +"It was about this time that the talk first began about the haunting +of Dutchman's Hill. I am not a credulous man where ghosts are +concerned, and I scoffed any idea of the supernatural. One stranger, +a pedlar, said that a 'something' had jumped out and chased him to +the bridge, where it stopped. Others declared that it was the ghost +of Jakey that haunted the place. On top of all this came +the--er--the very singular attacks upon Mr. Lessing. I don't want to +go into Lessing's case now. His own story was of course untenable, +and I strongly believe that he knew a great deal more than he chose +to tell me at the time--in other words, that he found amusement in +trying, deliberately, to see how much I would believe. We were +always strongly opposed on certain questions, though in general I +found him a most courteous and charming man, and I am afraid he was +not above trying, in this matter, to take a rise out of me, as they +say. If he had taken me into his confidence then, instead of +inventing the ridiculous sort of bogy-tale he did, we should have +been at the truth of this matter much earlier." + +Herrick and I exchanged glances. I fancied he was about to speak, +but on second thoughts changed his mind. Lennox continued. + +"The problem resolved itself into this. If Jakey was still alive, +and I could swear to it that he was, whose was the body that had been +identified and buried in March, and how was it that no one, save +myself, guessed at his continued existence? _Who was Aaron Menning?_ + +"I tell you, Haverill, the thing became a nightmare. I had no proof +to go upon, nothing but my own instinct. The more I thought over it, +the more clear it grew to me. The man whose body had been found at +Dutchman's Hill was not Jakey at all, it was Aaron." + +"But----" + +"Listen here, Haverill," Lennox said. "I know what I am saying +sounds incredible to you. But consider for a moment, on what +superficial observations we base our recognition of people, every +day. Remember the very strong likeness which existed between the two +brothers, even to the scarring and thickening of the skin by +smallpox, which in itself blunts the individuality of a face. The +face of the dead man was swollen both by the manner of death and the +partial immersion in mud. Remember that there were no intimate +relatives to impose upon, for the mother undoubtedly knew the truth. +The farmer who found the body identified it as that of a huckster +named Menning who had called upon him the week before. Aaron was +away from home that night, and he did not return with the wagon till +the afternoon. It was the mother who first identified the body as +that of Jakey, and the news was already spread when I arrived on the +scene. Aaron appeared at the inquest, but with the exception of +myself there were not three men there who knew him at all intimately, +or who could have sworn to his actual identity unless they saw the +two brothers side by side. Both Aaron and the mother opposed the +inquest strongly, and the neighbours told me that she would let no +one help her in preparing the body for burial. She had always kept +herself rather aloof, as I said, and at the time her refusal did not +strike me as peculiar. + +"Given the clue, the thing was easy enough to construct. I believe +myself it was fear of his brother's placing him under restraint that +first suggested the attack. He must have concealed himself in the +tree near the footbridge, knowing that Aaron had an errand in the +village and would pass that way, and so sprung out upon him. The +impact of his body bore them both down to the edge of the stream. +There was no struggle. The shock brought on the seizure in which +Aaron died, and Jakey, leaving him there, had sufficient cunning +either to follow the stream or swing himself up by the bridge, and so +avoid leaving any traces. He returned to the house, and with his +mother concocted the story of Aaron's absence with the wagon, +harnessed the horse and made off ready to return the following +afternoon, when the dead man's identity would have been safely +established. People might have suspected Jakey of killing Aaron, but +no one would suspect Aaron of killing Jakey. + +"I think now that he was on his guard against me at the inquest, and +that his suspicion must have deepened as time went on. I was morally +convinced that the man was a dangerous homicidal lunatic, but I had +no evidence to convict him. He would have been cunning enough to +defeat me, since no one would have credited my story. Aaron was +known and respected. It would have been folly to bring any hasty +charge against him. Convinced that he already mistrusted me, and +that my only safety was in disarming his suspicion, I took the only +course possible. I determined to go away for a time, and I took the +precaution of letting it be supposed that I went for my health. I +wanted Menning to think that he had driven me away, and I believe I +succeeded. Up to last night he had no suspicion of my identity with +Crowfoot. I counted on his relaxing his caution once I was out of +the way, and I was right. + +"Freeman must have suspected something of the truth, since that +Rebecca swore she had seen Jakey's ghost near the mill-dam, and if it +had not been for Freeman's well-meant imprudence we should have had +Jakey under lock and key at this moment. He got suspicious of +Freeman, laid up for him last night, and pushed him over the sluice. +I heard Freeman's cry and the splash, and guessed instinctively what +had happened. It was then that Jakey's mania came out. He +disappeared when Freeman fell, but in a paroxysm of rage and fear +came back and tried to pull the gate open on us while we were both +down there. I had to fire on him in defence, and he made off. He +had taken the alarm, however, and instead of waiting the one more day +I had intended, I judged it best to post straight off and lay my +facts as I knew them before the sheriff then and there. The rest of +course you know." + +"Then you had no intention of going to Europe?" I asked. + +"Not in the least. A friend posted my note from Queenstown, a wise +precaution, since Menning would undoubtedly hear of it through the +postmaster's gossip. I went to the Sliefers' because they were near +enough to the Bend to enable me to carry out a few investigations +without arousing too much interest, and also because they happened to +be about the only people in the village whom I never attended +professionally, and they would therefore be less likely to recognize +me. You were the only person I was afraid of, Haverill, and you I +had to chance. We spent only a few hours together before I left, and +before that we hadn't met for years; it was only my voice that +troubled me, and there I took a leaf out of Jakey's book. Mr. +Herrick would make a better detective than you. He played me a neat +trick over that revolver last night!" + +Herrick smiled. "You must admit that things looked ugly for you! +Now I see why you were so reluctant to be dragged up to the house +that morning." + +"My old training in college theatricals came in useful anyway!" He +looked at his watch. "Give me another of those cigars of which you +are so lavish, Haverill, and I'll turn in. I'm dog-tired, and +there's plenty before me tomorrow, yet." + +He betook himself with a blanket to the dining-room sofa, to get a +few hours' sleep. The first violet light of dawn was already +filtering between the curtains, and Herrick stood up abruptly and +extinguished the lamp. + +"Lord," he said, "it's stuffy in here! Well, Austin, what do you +make of it all?" + +"It may be true," I said. "It throws sufficient doubt anyway for the +arrest of this man. They might prove manslaughter. Lennox's idea +evidently is that if he can be once arrested on this charge they can +have him medically examined, and the whole truth will come out." + +"Exactly." He walked to the window, pulling aside the curtains, and +threw up the sash. The clean fresh air of the dawn, faintly cold, +swept past him into the room. "Austin, what points struck you +particularly in this story?" + +"If he really saw Jakey that disposes of the ghost tales. Only one +doesn't know..." + +"His doubts about his own judgment, in the earlier case, weakens +this," Herrick supplemented. "I agree. He seems certain at one +moment and uncertain at another. But he is more positive, I take it, +on that point, than on any other. It was _apparently_ Jakey's body, +it was _apparently_ Aaron at the inquest, but it was definitely Jakey +himself whom he saw and recognized later." + +"Jakey is alive. Whether Aaron was actually killed, or whether Jakey +in some extraordinary way came to life again.... There have been +cases." + +"There have been cases," Herrick said. "The inquest was held the +next day, and no one apparently saw the body after the inquest. +People have been buried alive before now. And we must remember that +Lennox, for all the skill and ingenuity he has brought to bear in +this matter afterwards, has only the experience of the average +country practitioner. You know what that's worth." + +"It seems to me," I said, grappling with an idea which had somehow +forced itself upon me all through Lennox's narrative, "that--I don't +want to criticize unduly--but I do feel that Lennox's tale has been +more evolved to fit existing facts than suggested by them. He seems +to me to be trying to convince himself just as much as us. And----" + +"Yes?" said Herrick. + +I hesitated. + +"I--well, hang it all, Herrick, I saw the man before he left, and +whatever the cause, or however temporary the effect, I am pretty sure +that the story he told us tonight is not sufficient to account for +the state of nerves he was in then. You saw how touchy he was about +Lessing?" + +Herrick nodded. + +"Lessing said once that Lennox only cared for things he could stick a +pin into and label." + +"And unless I am much mistaken," said Herrick quietly, "it will take +a bolder man than Lennox to label the real truth of this business. +However, Austin, we'll drop that part of it for the moment. There +are one or two points I want to recall to you particularly." + +"Well?" + +"They are these." He spoke deliberately. "The character of +Menning's mother. She is important. The rather curious isolation in +which the family seem always to have kept themselves. Aaron's sudden +change of mind about having Jakey put under restraint. And ... the +two other details to which Lennox himself seems to attach the least +importance. One is that of the footprints, presumably of a dog--a +large dog--noticed near the spot where Menning's body was found." + +"And the other?" + +"The other," said Herrick, "I have here in my hand, and to me it +provides the most significant clue in the whole case." + +He opened his hand, and I saw lying on the palm the battered silver +button that had been picked up on Dutchman's Hill. + + + + +XIX + +THE MILL DAM + +I could get nothing further from Herrick just then. He went back to +his room, but not to sleep, for I could hear him pacing up and down +overhead. For myself, I dozed fitfully in the surgery arm-chair, and +when I finally opened my eyes with a start it was to find the room +filled with sunlight and Herrick standing over me, fully dressed, a +cup of steaming coffee in his hand. + +"Wake up, Austin," he said. "I've stolen a march on Mrs. Searle. +It's hot, if it isn't otherwise drinkable." + +I rubbed my eyes. + +"Where's Lennox?" + +"Sleeping the sleep of the just. By the look of him he won't wake up +till midday. That's the reward of an easy conscience for you---- +'Something accomplished, something done.' Which reminds me. Are you +using your motorcycle today?" + +"I don't think so." I drank the coffee--it was strong and scalding +hot, and it pulled me together. "Why, do you want it?" + +"I'd like it for today, yes." + +"Sure." I looked at him curiously. "Have you got something in mind?" + +"Only a little tour of investigation. You needn't look injured, +Austin! Just something I want to check up on. Are you going over to +Sliefer's today?" + +"Later on. I've got two calls in the village." + +"Well, if you see the Lessings tell them I'll be over tomorrow--or +tonight if I get back in time." + +We got the cycle out without rousing Pete, and I watched Herrick off +down the road. When he had gone I lit my pipe and set out for a +little stroll until such time as the household should be awake. + +There had been a heavy fall of dew, and the weeds by the roadside +were drenched and silvered. Spider webs like jewel-work upon the +brambles. I was reminded of the first time I had driven over to the +bungalow, early in the summer, on just such a morning as this, and of +how little thought had been in my mind then of what I should find at +my journey's end. To me, then, these far stretching woods, dense and +close-grown, the hollow with its rank growth of teeming insect life, +the little creek that followed threadlike among the emerald mosses +and tufts of sedge, suggested nothing more than the idle peace and +pleasure of a summer's holiday. I had envied whoever lived here all +the year round. These cool depths of shadow, with the freckled at +nothing more dreadful than the tragedy of play of sunlight through +the branches, hinted weasel and rabbit, of hawk and thrush. Now +their aspect was to me indefinably changed. I felt them sinister, +secretive, their peace a mere deceptive veil for the evil that lurked +beneath. + +What was the secret that overshadowed the place? What had Herrick +meant by his insistence upon the silver button and those queer +footprints by the cedar where Aaron had met his death? Did Lennox's +story after all explain anything? I felt that it did not and yet I +felt, in a strange, unexplained way, that somehow, in connection with +the Mennings, and the Menning homestead, loathsome and sinister, was +to be found the answer to our whole problem. But how? + +Retracing my steps, I reached the house to find smoke curling +cheerfully from the chimney and Lennox, contrary to Herrick's +prophecy, dressed and on the porch. Mrs. Searle had breakfast ready, +bacon, buckwheat cakes and coffee which obliterated the lingering +taste of the decoction Herrick had pressed upon me before starting +out. + +Lennox was not very communicative. I think he was still inwardly +chagrined by the failure of last night's expedition. + +After breakfast Pete hitched the mare and I set out on my rounds. +The news of the fire had already spread. Everyone was talking about +it, and from what I could gather no one had any sympathy over it, +unless it was for the old woman now rendered houseless. The current +belief was that Menning, heavily insured, had fired the place +himself. There was even a suggestion that he had intended the old +woman to perish with the house. Disaster works strangely in +loosening people's tongues, and I gathered that though the supposed +Aaron had outwardly enjoyed the respect of the community there was +inwardly very little liking lost between him and his neighbours. At +all events they were ready enough now to speak of his queerness, his +surliness, the way the farm was kept--in itself a sufficient ground +of condemnation in a hard-working neighbourhood--and above all of the +way he had, of late months, neglected and ill-treated his old mother. +Odds and ends of scandal, restrained up to now I imagined through a +lurking fear of Menning himself, found free tongue. But in all this +talk there was no clear idea as yet of the real reason for the +sheriff's visit. Menning was "wanted" for something, but no one +quite knew what, and gossip confined itself so far to dark hints and +speculations which fell very wide of the real mark. + +I reached the Sliefers' house about midday. Freeman was progressing +favorably, though not yet out of danger. Mrs. Sliefer pressed me to +eat dinner with them, and over the meal the talk turned naturally on +the excitement of the night before. Mrs. Sliefer was very definite +in her opinion of the Menning household, almost as vehement as old +Paddy had been that day I talked to him of his neighbours. + +"If there was ever call for a place to be burned," she declared, "it +was that one, though I ain't one for wishing ill to my neighbours +without cause. But there's a bad streak in that family an' always +has been. The old woman's grown feeble of late and I'm sorry enough +for her, poor soul, by all I hear, but there was a day when I'd 'a +crossed the road sooner than pass the time of day with her, and so +would many another. I never believed all these ignorant tales of old +Ma Menning bein' a witch, for there ain't no witches and we well know +it, but there was something about her that wasn't like other folks, +and though we was neighbours in a way, she never took to me nor I to +her. Things did get better in the two years Jakey was away, an' then +it did seem like Aaron had a chance to take hold an' run things +decent, till he come back again. And after his death one would have +thought there'd been a turn for the better, but it didn't last. I +guess the bad streak was in the whole family, an' after Jakey died I +suppose it preyed on Aaron's mind, in a way, an' he got to goin' the +same road as his brother." + +It was on my tongue to mention the truth, but I checked myself in +time. Evidently the police hoped to gain something by keeping the +real facts dark, at least until after Jakey's arrest. + +After dinner I drove round, by way of the Bend, to the Lessings' +bungalow. The Menning place was a mere charred ruin, except for the +outhouses which stood empty and deserted. The few remaining +chickens--Menning had sold out the greater part of his stock a few +days before the fire, which was another reason why his neighbours +thought it premeditated--had been taken elsewhere; the cow, filthy +and gaunt from weeks of neglect, poor brute, was grazing hungrily in +a small stony pasture adjoining, thankful to be at liberty. + +Old Paddy, with a greasy, old velvet cap on and his feet in slashed +shoes, was leaning over his fence-railing, smoking his black pipe. I +asked about Menning's mother. + +"The old woman, she's took an' cleared out. Scared er Aaron, I +guess. She got a wheelbarrer an' loaded her bits o' truck on it, an' +carted it up to that little empty shack back off the road yonder, +what belongs to Scholl. Reckon the Scholls don't mind her usin' it. +She wouldn't have no help neither--carted the lot herself, in two +journeys, an' I'll say she's still pretty spry on her feet fur an old +lady, though she does look so feeble. My darter, she was sorry fur +the old soul, an' she gives her some potatoes an' a bag o' flour, but +she didn't git so much as a thank you for it. Jest chucked 'em on +the barrer an' went off. Kinder dazed that night, she was, but she +come round pretty quick once the excitement was over." + +He paused to spit, with precision, at a white stone by the fence rail. + +"No one ain't seen nothin' of Aaron." + +"No," I said. + +"Guess they won't, neither. He's cleared out for good, by the looks +of it." + +"Maybe it's well." + +"No one round here ain't grumblin'. It's a case o' good riddance. I +don't trust Aaron. My darter, she ain't lettin' her young 'un run +through the woods, neither. He'd orter be jailed an' done with it." + +I found Mary and Lessing on the porch. They hailed me cheerfully, +and I hitched the mare in the shade and joined them. + +"Poor old Crowfoot," said Lessing. "I don't think the arm of the law +was best pleased at being fetched out on a wild goose chase last +night. It's my private opinion that Lennox has solaced his +loneliness by reading up on detective novels. I always thought he +had some bats in his belfry. Did he tell you anything more last +night?" + +"Quite a lot." + +I told them the story as briefly as I could. + +"Lennox is crazy," Dick said when I had finished. "The thing doesn't +hang together. And when he gets to a point where he can't trust his +judgment as to the identity of a man in one case, how can he trust it +in another? What did Herrick think?" + +"He didn't say definitely." + +"So like Herrick! What?" + +"He seemed to lay more stress on the dogs' footprints and the button +Lennox picked up than on anything else. Oddly enough, someone else +spoke of dogs, now I think of it." And I told him what the chauffeur +had said last night. + +"Queer," said Lessing. "You'd think he'd know a dog when he saw one. +I'd like to have a look at that button." + +"Herrick has it." + +"He has..." Lessing was silent a moment. "Even if Jakey did kill +Aaron, and Aaron is really his brother--hang it all, the thing's so +mixed--I don't see that that gets us any further on. Does Lennox +think he's at the back of everything? What's he playing at?" + +"He was at the back of Rebecca's scare, and that business of Freeman. +If Freeman were only well enough to speak.... I don't know that he +could tell us much then, that we haven't found out for ourselves." + +"Grant that Jakey did kill his brother, and has succeeded in putting +it over. He was at the bottom of all these Dutchman's Hill scares, +and that business with Rebecca. Freeman found out something, and he +laid for Freeman ... and got him. That doesn't explain the cyclist +affair, nor what happened to me." + +"And it doesn't explain another thing, either," said Mary, breaking +in for the first time. "It doesn't explain what the one point was +that Lennox himself was unwilling to face, what it was he tried to +avoid by ridiculous explanations that wouldn't satisfy a child. I +don't mean recently, I mean further back, almost in the beginning, +the second time he was here to attend Dick." She turned to her +brother. "Perhaps I haven't told you this before. But it did strike +me at the time, and afterwards I've been thinking of it more and more. + +"I was standing out here on the porch, wondering whether I could +leave you with Kate and slip over to Lennox's house, or whether I +could get hold of anyone to send, when Lennox himself came by, +driving. I ran out to stop him and tell him what had happened. He +pulled up as soon as he saw me, before I had time to call out, and I +tell you if I ever saw a man frightened it was then. He was afraid, +and he was afraid before he saw me, or even knew what I had to say. +Something had happened, something that gave him a shock, before he +came up the road there. He tried to pass it off, but I'm not a fool; +I know when a person is just puzzled, and I know when he is afraid, +and I tell you that Lennox was afraid. And I'd like to know just +what it was that frightened him." + +"Where was he coming from?" Lessing asked. + +"Down the road here, the way Austin came just now. He came from the +Bend." + +"From Menning's place." + +"It might have been. I don't know. He didn't say and I didn't ask +him. But something, that morning, had happened to upset him before +he got here. And it was as if he knew--or at least expected, what he +was going to find." + +"Did you ask him?" + +"I said something about it. He told me he'd been up all night on a +case some miles away, that he'd only left at daybreak to drive back, +and that he felt all in. But it was something more than that, I feel +certain, to have thrown him into the state he was in." + +"I shall ask him tonight," I said. "If he's keeping anything +back----" + +"Ask him!" said Mary. "Ask him, and get the truth! You can tell him +just what I said." + +I had promised to look in at the Sliefers' again, later in the +evening, and instead of doing so on my way back, Mary proposed that I +should walk across with her, after tea, while Lessing got some +letters written. + +"I want some cream for supper," she said, "and I want to see Rebecca +too. I meant to go this morning. If you don't mind the walk we'll +take Leo along. He hasn't had a run today yet." + +She called the setter and he came bounding up, glad enough of the +prospect of a walk. + +"Poor old Leo!" Mary said. "He doesn't get half enough exercise. +We'll take the leash, Austin, if you don't mind. There's a collie at +the farm and the two are sworn enemies. I always have to fasten him +if I go there." + +I put the leash in my pocket and we set off through the woods by a +short cut that brought us out eventually upon the cart-track near the +old saw-mill. On the other side of this road the Sliefers' land +began, and only a couple of pasture fields, with low snake-fences, +separated us from the farm. Leo had dropped behind after we passed +the mill, and as we stopped by the fence to wait for him we saw a +woman coming along the path. She wore a faded check cotton dress and +a sunbonnet that almost hid her face, and she was carrying a basket +filled with chips, evidently gathered near the mill. As she drew +near I caught a flash of very keen eyes, set in a dark wrinkled face, +directed upon us in a glance that was by no means friendly. + +Mary stepped forward and spoke to her, and I saw her slip something +into the old woman's hand. The gnarled fingers closed on it +unwillingly; she muttered something and passed on. + +"Do you know her?" I asked. + +"It's old Mrs. Menning," Mary said. "Poor old soul! She's +crotchety, but I can't help feeling sorry for her. Is it true they +are sending her to the poorhouse?" + +"I've no idea. Old Paddy Nevill told me she'd moved her things up to +some little empty shack near her old place. I suppose they'll let +her stay there till something can be arranged." + +I watched the bent, dragging figure out of sight. As Paddy had said, +she covered the ground fairly spryly, for all her feebleness of gait. +It was my first acquaintance with this woman to whose personality +Herrick had particularly drawn my attention the night before. If +Lennox were right, she had played an almost incredibly cunning part +throughout, even if her brain had not itself evolved the whole plot. + +"You'd think she could find chips nearer than the saw-mill," Mary +said. "It's a good walk from the Nevills' place, if she's near +there. I wouldn't wonder if the old body were unhinged by the fire +altogether. She's never friendly at her best, but she looked quite +queer just now. Did you notice how she was muttering to herself?" + +I let down the bars and we passed through into the field. + +"Austin," Mary said, as we picked our way over the boulder-strewn +pasture, "do you know that I've got a confession to make, and it's +worrying me." + +I smiled. + +"Anything very dreadful?" + +"I don't just know," she said. "It's about last night. You know I +stayed out on the porch while you were all over at the fire. Well, +it was while I was sitting there, about a quarter of an hour after +you went, I saw Menning come up by the road. I don't think he even +saw me. He was going at a sort of shambling trot, and he never +looked up when he passed the house. I am sure it was he, though." + +"And you never told us!" I exclaimed. + +"I knew you'd be angry, but I couldn't help it. I didn't know about +this whole story then, and--and I hate the idea of any man being +hunted that way, no matter what he's done. I thought he might have +some sort of chance to get away, and that's why I didn't say anything +last night, even to Dick!" + +"Which way was he going?" + +"Toward the hill. Your chauffeur must surely have met him. That's +what I couldn't make out." + +"He saw no one at all. The man may have turned off into the woods +when he saw the car. I suppose you know what the sheriff would say +to this?" + +"Compounding a felony!" Mary laughed. "Anyway he never asked me, so +I didn't have to tell any lies about it. Only after what you said +last night it worried me, and I thought I'd better own up. Now if he +is caught it won't be on my conscience that I had a direct hand in +it." + +"Oh, woman!" I exclaimed. + +"You'd have done the same in my case," she retorted. "Besides, I +wasn't supposed to know. You never told me anything." + +"You are sure it was Menning?" + +"Quite sure. I had left the house door open, and he passed right +into the light. I wondered why he was going away from the fire +instead of toward it, and I thought at first he might be going to get +more help. I didn't know then. He hadn't been there all along." + +We reached the farm, and I left her below while I saw my patient. +Either I was longer than I thought, or we must have loitered +unconsciously on our way over, for when I joined her again on the +porch the light was already fading. Then there was a delay about the +cream. Rebecca had to fetch it, and while she was gone Mary turned +to me. + +"This farm is still bewitched," she said. "It's the cream-pans now. +Rebecca swears that the milk has gone, these last few nights. Last +night she set out three pans in the spring-house and this morning one +of them was two-thirds empty. I suspect cats, but anyway the problem +takes Rebecca's mind off her other trouble, poor girl. Here she is. +Can you spare this, Rebecca?" + +"It's a bit scant, Miss Lessing, but it's the best I can do. We'll +be short for churning this week, as it is. Whatever ails the milk I +don't know! I've never had it go before." + +"Well, it isn't witches' work;" Mary smiled. "They turn the milk, +you know, Rebecca, they don't steal it! I'd keep an eye on the cat. +If you'll take Leo a moment, Austin, till we're out of the grounds, +I'll carry the pail--no, it isn't heavy, and I don't trust men +anyway. They spill everything. Good night, Rebecca!" + +"Carry your old cream yourself," I retorted. "I won't help you--not +after that. And the way I've condoned your offences, too! Come on, +Leo! Can I let him loose here, do you think?" + +"Wait till we're quite clear of the house. He had a dreadful fight +here once. It'll be all right now. We'd better take the path along +the dam; it's a little shorter." + +We followed the footpath along which they had carried Freeman that +night to the house. Given any other time and place, I should have +been tempted to do my best in prolonging this stroll, but I had none +too pleasant associations with the place and its surroundings, and +with twilight closing rapidly upon us I was in no mind to loiter. A +stagnant weedy smell rose from the dam, a gloomy stretch of water +with enclosing trees that darkened it still more effectually. Frogs +croaked in monotonous chorus from the weeds at the edge and the +midges were thick. In the end Mary had to give in ignominiously, and +I carried the pail while she fought their attacks off with a +handkerchief. + +It was here that Rebecca and her sweetheart used to walk of an +evening, and I wondered at their choice of a trysting-place. + +"It's romantic," said Mary, "in a way. Can't you imagine this the +deserted moat, with the ruined castle of Lord Thingummy in the +background? I am sure that Rebecca reads Laura Jean Libbey on the +sly. What spot more suggestive of lovers' vows and maidens palely +loitering! Rebecca's too healthy not to be romantic at her age." + +"Romance?" I said. "Fiddlesticks! The Sliefers ought to have this +place drained if they aren't going to work the mill any more. As a +plain medical man I have no use for picturesque sheets of water that +smell bad after sunset." + +"So you'd sacrifice all this----" she waved the hand that was not +occupied in keeping nudges at bay--"and plant cabbages on it!" + +"Why cabbages?" + +"Aren't they the symbol of all that is practical?" + +"Including myself!" I snapped. I was getting badly bitten, and with +no opportunity for redress. + +"Oh, I didn't say that!" She stopped short. "Did you see that big +fish jump just then? Right beyond the pond-lilies there. This place +must be full of them." + +"Carp, most likely. It's pretty deep up at this end." + +She stopped to watch the circle widen and disappear, leaving the +water black. "Austin ... do you suppose I ought to have spoken about +Menning before?" + +"I don't know that it matters. They'll get him anyhow." + +There was no good in mere speculation, and I didn't want to enlarge +on the subject of Menning. She had come into contact with sufficient +ugliness this summer already. "It's more than probable that he has +cleared out altogether by this time. In any case, until we know, I +think it would be better that you kept near the house unless one of +us is with you. There's no good running any risks." + +We had passed the mill and were just turning into the little path +that would bring us to the road near the bungalow, when Lessing met +us. + +"I thought you two would never turn up," he said. "I'm dying of +hunger. How's the patient, Austin?" + +"Getting on. You can carry the pail if you want to work. Where's +that dog got to?" + +I had released the setter some little way back, and he had kept +within sight nearly all the way. Missing him now, I turned to +whistle, and saw Leo, a pale shadow in the dusk, nosing eagerly about +the scattered logs that lay in the clearing near the mill. Lessing +called him several times by name, sharply, but he paid no attention. + +"Got a rabbit, most likely. Wait a minute. I'll soon fetch him out +of that." + +He walked back the few paces to the clearing, and Mary sat down at +the edge of the path with a little sigh of resignation. I offered +her a cigarette, and for some minutes we smoked in silence, listening +for her brother's step. Presently Mary stood up. + +"I'm not going to wait here all evening! We'll go on to the house +and let him catch up to us." + +We had nearly reached the bungalow before Lessing overtook us. He +was holding Leo by a handkerchief knotted through his collar. The +dog came unwillingly, cringing against his master's legs, the hair +along his spine bristling and his ears kid back. + +"Why, look at that!" Mary exclaimed. "I've never seen him act that +way before. You haven't been beating him, Dick?" + +"I'd like to!" Lessing stooped to take a fresh grip on the dog's +collar. "Be quiet, you brute! You aren't going back there now." + +Mary patted the setter's head. "Poor old boy! Did he get a rat, and +wouldn't they let him have it! Was it a good rat, Leo?" + +But the dog only twisted impatiently from her touch, his head turned +backwards and his nose working. + +"It was a darn good rat," said Lessing, "but he won't have it now. +Go open the shed door, Mary, till I get him in." + +She threw open the door of the tool-shed, and Lessing thrust the dog +inside, pushing him in with his foot, and fastened the latch. + +"That's that! Aren't you staying for supper, Austin?" + +"Wish I could! I must get the mare back, and I want to be there when +Herrick gets in." + +I untied the mare and backed her around. Mary was standing on the +porch. + +"Do you notice you can smell that stagnant water at the dam? We seem +to get it in whiffs, every once in a while. I noticed it very +strongly last night, sitting out here. I wonder the Sliefers can +stand it, living as close as they do." + +There was a slight taint on the air. As Mary said, it seemed to come +in whiffs. It might have been the dam, but it carried my mind back, +as a smell will do, to some vague recollection I could not quite +place. + +"There's a lot of rotting vegetation there. Maybe it isn't so bad at +their end. Sometimes you smell things much more at a distance." + +"It just comes and goes. I don't notice it now. You'll be over this +evening?" + +"I'll bring Herrick along if he's back." + +I paused, held by a vague trouble in her eyes. + +"You aren't worried, Mary?" + +"Worried? No. I just feel ... restless. It's the sort of feeling +you get before a storm. As if we were all waiting for something, and +you don't know what." + +"You've been upset about this Menning affair." + +"It isn't that. I don't know what it is. The place, maybe ... I +always liked woods before, and now I feel as if I should never like +them again." Her grave clear eyes held mine. "Austin, I wish I +knew. If only ... sometimes I almost wish we'd never come to this +place at all." + +"Mary, you don't really wish that?" + +"No, I don't. I ought to, but I can't. But ... I do wish we were +all away--out of here--somewhere else." + +"We shall be, soon enough." I was thinking of the end of my holiday, +the breaking-up of a summer that, if it had brought danger and +ugliness and all but tragedy, had brought also something infinitely +precious into my life--something I was far from ready to lose. + +"The summer has done Kate good, anyway. We had a letter from her +this morning." + +"Where is she?" I knew that Mrs. Lessing had left a few days before, +to stay with some friends. + +"On Long Island. A place on the Sound. We'll probably join her +there in a couple of weeks. I wish you could come--you and Jack +both. I think the sea air would blow sense into all of us!" She +laughed. "I'm talking like an old woman, and I've got Dick's supper +to get and nothing ready! Well, we'll see you tonight." + +"Would you rather I stayed?" + +"Nonsense! You'll begin to think I'm developing nerves, next!" + +She waved her hand as I climbed into the buggy. Gathering up the +reins, I turned the mare's head homeward. It was already nearly +dark, but I could still see the road before me. Was it presage, or +only the desire for Mary's company that made me wish, even before I +had turned the corner by Dutchman's Hill, that I had after all +accepted Lessing's invitation and stayed on? + +As I reached the point where the road dipped to the hollow it seemed +to me that I could smell once more that queer unplaceable odour of +which Mary had spoken. + + + + +XX + +WHAT WE FOUND IN THE SAW-MILL + +Herrick had not yet returned when I reached the house. Lennox was +just sitting down to supper, in which I joined him. While we were +lingering over our coffee I remembered what Mary had said that +morning, and asked him point-blank about it. + +He gave me a curious look before replying: + +"So Mary Lessing told you that, did she? Well, I give her credit for +observation. I remember that morning perfectly. She was quite +right; something _had_ happened." + +He paused to light a cigar over the lamp-chimney before saying: +"Shall we go into the surgery, Haverill?" + +I followed him in, leaving the dining-room to Mrs. Searle, and closed +the door between us, while Lennox threw himself back into the +armchair and smoked for a few moments in silence. + +"I've told you, Haverill, that between one thing and another my +nerves were in a pretty unreliable state early this summer. I +mention that now, because I still think it had a certain bearing on +what happened. When Mary Lessing stopped me that morning in the road +it was just a case of one shock on top of another." + +"Then----" + +"Wait a minute," Lennox said. "If I tell this thing I've got to tell +it my own way. I'll tell you just what happened and I haven't got +any explanation of it at all. You can take it or leave it. And +you'll understand that I don't even claim to be telling you facts. +The whole thing might have been just an impression in my own mind. +That's what I want to make clear, regardless of any effect it may +have had on me at the time. + +"I had been out on an all-night case. I was physically tired, and +through a particular anxiety in this instance, just about all in. I +had a seven-mile drive home, and I could almost have fallen asleep +there in the buggy. I had left my patient out of danger, and coming +back I remembered that Mrs. Searle wanted a couple of chickens from +Aaron and that I'd told her the day before I would stop in some time +and get them. It was very little after daybreak, but I chanced the +Mennings being early risers and turned out of my way to go by the +Bend. There was smoke coming from the chimney, so I got out and +knocked at the door, and the old woman opened it. I guess she was +just dressing; she looked half asleep, and she told me Aaron wasn't +up yet, but that the chickens were ready, and she'd get them for me +if I didn't mind waiting a minute. + +"I stood about outside. It was a chilly morning, and a bit foggy. I +guess I had my mind more on a cup of hot coffee than anything else, +and I wondered if the old woman would give me some if I asked for it +when she came back, though I'd be needing coffee pretty badly before +I'd drink it in that house. You knew the Menning place, before it +was burned?" + +I nodded. + +"There are a lot of tumble-down outbuildings there where they used to +keep the chickens he bought, and one in particular--I don't know if +you noticed it--a sort of lean-to near the open wagon shed, painted +green. I don't know what it was built for, but it had a door and a +square window-hole, high up, about the height of a man's head. I +don't suppose the whole floor space inside would be more than about +eight foot square, about the size of a calf-pen, and I shouldn't +wonder if that was what it was. I'd walked over to it because I +wanted to get my pipe started, out of the breeze. The door was shut, +and I'm certain there wasn't anything moving in there, or I'd have +heard it. + +"I'd struck a match, and was just bending over to draw on my pipe +when something shot past me. It seemed to come out of the uncleared +patch of woods back of the sheds. I didn't get more than a half +glimpse of it, and I can't even tell you what it looked like, except +that it was biggish, and it seemed to shamble on all fours, and it +panted, the way an animal does that's been running, and it _smelt_ +like an animal too--I seemed to get a whiff of it as it went past. +It came by me so close I could almost have touched it, and flung +itself straight at that window-hole and slithered through, and I +could hear the thud of its body on the inside. + +"I'm a short man. That window-hole was well above the level of my +head. My first thought was to pull myself up and look through, and +then--well, you can put it down to what you like, but the thing had +given me such a queer turn when it shot past, like cold water down my +spine, and I believe if I could have touched that window I wouldn't +have had the physical strength to pull myself up and look through. +Instead I backed away and just stood there, staring. The door was +tight shut. It had all happened in such a flash that I began to +wonder, then, if I'd imagined the whole thing. I might have stood +there for a couple of minutes, though it seemed to me longer, and +then suddenly the door was flung wide open and Aaron himself--or as I +know now, Jakey--walked out. + +"The door opened outward, and I could see straight past into the +shed. There was a heap of broken harness and some rags lying in one +corner, and except for that the place was as bare as my hand. + +"I daresay I must have looked queer--I know I felt it--for Menning +gave me a pretty surly look. He asked me what I wanted, and I told +him I'd stopped for the chickens. He said they weren't ready, that +he'd bring them over, but just at that minute his mother came out +from the house with them in her hand, and I tell you I was glad +enough to grab those chickens and drive off. I didn't want to ask +questions or to stop near the place." + +"This thing--what did you think it looked like?" + +"I can't even tell you. It--it didn't look like anything." + +"But it ran?" + +"Yes, it ran. It's no good trying to tell you what my impression +was, any more than I have done." + +"Do you suppose Menning kept something shut up there?" + +"If he did, where was it when he opened the door? I tell you the +shed was empty." + +"There was no trapdoor?" + +"I went back to see. I didn't just give it up, either. I went back +a few days later, one time when Menning had passed our house and I +knew he'd be away on his rounds some time. I saw the old woman. She +was surly in a way, but friendly to me. You see, I'd tended her +before when Menning had been beating her up--oh, yes, he'd done that +more than once to my knowledge. The Nevills knew it, but there was +no good interfering; she'd deny it, and no one dared tackle Menning. +But she had to come to me, once, and though she put up some story, I +could tell what had happened. Well, I chatted with her there, and +just to see what she'd say I asked her if they didn't keep some sort +of a dog on the place. She said no, that they'd had a dog and her +son shot it because it howled at night. After a while I left her +settled there in the kitchen and before I left I took my chance to go +over every hole and corner out of doors. Except for the cow and a +couple of pigs there wasn't the sign of any animal round the place +bigger than a cat. And there was no opening in that shed except the +window and the door Menning came out by. + +"So now you know the whole thing--all Mary Lessing claimed I was +keeping back from you--and I imagine you're about as wise as I am, +and that isn't much." + +"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" I asked. + +"What could I do? If I went telling that around anyone would have a +right to say I was crazy and that I'd imagined the whole thing. You +might say--and I've tried to think myself--that what I heard was just +something running in the bushes and what I saw was an old hen +fluttering in at the window. And maybe it was. And I've known men +who've been just as startled, and have told circumstantial tales, +over nothing more." + +"You could have told it at its face value." + +"No," said Lennox, "I couldn't. My mind doesn't work that way. I've +got to weigh things. And I've got to exhaust every possible +reasonable explanation, including my own physical state at the time, +before I'll admit that a thing is so when I know it can't be so. If +I've kept this to myself it's because I wanted to find some sort of +explanation in my own mind first." + +He faced me, stolid and obstinate. Even in that moment I admired his +self-possession, his dogged, common sense determination not to be +drawn into admission of the existence of any thing that, as Lessing +said, he couldn't stick a pin into and label. And I knew, too, that +it had cost him something to tell me that story. + +"Well," I said, "that's only one more to the list of things we don't +seem able to clear up. There's one point; that whatever the +explanation may be, it all seems to centre, in the end, round Menning +himself." + +Lennox rose and went to his desk. "It's what I've always said," he +threw back over his shoulder. "Get Menning, and you get the root of +all this mystery." + +I sat pondering his story. It was not long before my ears caught the +sound of a motor cycle along the road, and a few minutes after +Herrick appeared. He looked as if he had ridden far and fast; his +clothes were covered with dust and there were grimy circles round his +eyes. + +"No, I don't want to eat," he said. "I got a sandwich coming along. +Just let me get this dirt off, that's all." + +He went through to the kitchen, and we could hear him splashing at +the sink. When he came back, still vigorously towelling his face, +Lennox had already mixed him a drink at the sideboard. + +"Well," Herrick said, settling himself in the chair Lennox had +vacated, "let's begin at the beginning. When I left this morning, +Austin, I couldn't tell you where I was going, because I didn't know +myself. I had to pick up my information on the way. I was on the +track of something which, it seems to me, none of us has so far taken +into account, and that is, Jakey Menning's early life." + +"He was born right in this county," said Lennox. + +"He was not. That's where you make your mistake. He was between +eight and nine years old when he first came here. His mother, when +we first hear of her, was employed with a travelling show, owned by a +German Jew called Goldstein, a sort of fourth rate circus that used +to do one-night stands in the small towns and villages. She cooked +for the men and looked after the wardrobe. While she was working +with them Jakey was born. No one seems to have known just who his +father was. The mother passed as a kind of half-wit. She was +cunning under an appearance of heavy stupidity, spoke a poor English, +was easily teased and enraged, and seems to have been treated as the +butt of the company. They wintered usually in Pottsville, where the +proprietor's brother kept a saloon. The proprietor's wife took +rather a fancy to Jakey, and later on, when Jakey's mother, during +the slack season, took a job as cook in a cheap eating-joint there, +she simply abandoned the baby to the circus people. While she was +employed there she met Menning, married him, and doesn't seem to have +troubled about Jakey for several years. Probably she never told +Menning of his existence. + +"They settled in the country, where Aaron was born, and a few years +after, for reasons unknown, Menning deserted her. Then, for the +first time, she seems to have remembered Jakey, now growing to an age +when he might begin to make himself useful about the farm. She set +about claiming him. The circus people, from what I could hear, made +some opposition. Jakey was being trained as an acrobat and showed +some promise, though he was a difficult child to manage. Moreover, +they had kept him all this time and expected some return. Times, +however, were slack, they probably foresaw trouble with the school +inspectors also, and in the end they let the boy go. + +"He worked about the farm, off and on, for some eight or ten years, +and got himself thoroughly disliked, as you know, by all the +Mennings' neighbours. The criminal streak in him was already +apparent, though in those days it only took the form of spitefulness +and mental deficiency. He was idle and vagrant and finally, at about +seventeen years old, took himself off one fine day and went back to +the travelling show, which he managed to trace up through the +Pottsville saloon-keeper. They took him back as an extra hand, to +help with the wagons. He was not good enough for a performer, his +training being interrupted, but the proprietor about that time had +the idea of running one or two freak side-shows, and they tried Jakey +out as the hoary old fake of 'wild man.'" + +Herrick paused a moment to light a fresh cigarette, and in that +instant I saw Lennox's eye turn to me with something very like relief. + +"It seems," Herrick went on, "that he was quite a successful +attraction and I can certainly believe it. There was naturally +something apish and uncouth about him, and very little make-up would +have turned the trick most naturalistically. He stayed with the show +nearly two years, doing odd jobs by day and playing his wild-man +stunt at the performances. And then some sort of queer thing must +have happened. + +"I couldn't get the whole truth of it from the Pottsville brother, +who told me most of the story. Either he didn't know or he was +unwilling to tell, but the gist of it is that there was some row and +Jakey got suddenly fired. From what the Pottsville brother +'guessed,' Jakey played his rôle too realistically, and the +proprietor refused then and there to keep him another day. He had a +little money in his pockets, he turned up in Pottsville, where he +hung about for two or three days, and then made his way back to the +farm. + +"I would give a great deal to have ten minutes with Goldstein +himself, and know exactly what did happen and why Jakey was fired. I +gathered that it was something pretty unpleasant. But Goldstein is +somewhere out in Ohio, and try as I would, I could get nothing more +from the brother than what I have told you. I think myself there was +something hushed up at the time, and that he is afraid even now of +its coming out. But I got enough I think to throw some interesting +light on what has happened since." + +"Did you get any idea," Lennox asked, "of Jakey's make-up when he was +with these people?" + +"No. Why?" + +"Tell him your story, Lennox," I said. + +He repeated briefly what he had already told me. Herrick listened, +his face intent. + +"So that was----" He pulled himself up short. "Well, it isn't +difficult to put two and two together. The obvious explanation is +that Jakey has fallen back on his old circus stunt as a means of +terrorizing the neighbourhood. It wouldn't be difficult. No one +here, from what I can make out--possibly not even his own +family--knew how he spent those two years while he was away. There +is a form of mania which takes just that expression, and it is +possible that in Jakey's case it began out of sheer maliciousness, +and developed later into something a great deal worse--a fixed mania +which, with the rousing of the homicidal instinct, turned him +actually, at moments, into the wild beast he pretended to be." + +"You think it was Menning--it was--well, what I saw--that attacked +Lessing?" + +"I am certain of it. Go over the thing carefully, Lennox. There was +no stunt outside the possibility of a man with unusual physical +strength and ability, who had had acrobatic training in boyhood. And +remember that a maniac can perform feats that in his sane moments +might be outside his powers. We are not dealing with a normal +person. That's the one thing in this whole business we've got to +remember." He rose. "Austin, will you come over to the bungalow +with me? I'd like to see Lessing tonight." + +I looked at my watch. "Ten o'clock. I told them I'd be over. We'll +take the cycle. It'll carry two of us." + +He had left the motor cycle outside the porch. As we wheeled it out +to the roadway I said: "You think that is the explanation of the +whole thing?" + +Herrick gave me a quick look. + +"I said it was the obvious explanation. It is. But there's more +mixed up with it than that. And it's the other side of it that we +shall never get to the truth of until we get hold of Menning himself." + +I thought of Lennox's description of what he had seen, in that +fleeting glimpse, and in spite of myself a shudder went over me. + +"Do you mean that mania can actually transform a human being to that +degree?" + +"Haven't you see enough, Austin, in your own experience, to answer +that question?" + +I was silent. Every doctor, I imagine, has had experiences which he +is glad enough to put out of his mind, and though my own were limited +so far, I had heard enough tales of abnormality, at second hand, to +know that there was truth in Herrick's words. + +I took my seat on the back of the motor cycle, and in a few minutes +we had reached the rise of hill. Turning the corner, we could see +the bungalow through the trees. There was still a light burning. As +we approached, the deep melancholy howl of the dog broke on our ears. +Evidently Lessing had not yet let him out. + +We left the cycle against a tree and went up to the porch. The door +stood wide open, the light streaming through it from the lamp on the +table inside. Of Lessing or his sister there was no sign. Except +for the steady howling of the dog in the shed, the place was +absolutely silent. + +We went through the empty rooms, came out again on the porch. A +chair was drawn up near the doorway, with a book dropped in it +face-downward, as though someone had risen in haste. That, and the +lamp left flaring on the table, gave me for the first time a definite +thrill of uneasiness. + +Herrick went back and lowered the flame. "They can't have gone far," +he said. "They wouldn't have left the light that way. Let's try the +studio." + +We crossed the little space of ground beside the house. The studio +was dark; the door was locked and the key on the outside. As we +passed the tool-shed there was a tumult within. The dog, hearing our +footsteps, flung himself against the door in a frenzy of eagerness, +whining, scratching, tearing at the wood with his nails. There was +something in the deep, agonized, almost human anxiety in his voice, +raised, not in yelps, but in steady entreaty, that sent a queer +thrill down by spine. Herrick felt it too. He stopped short. + +"What's _got_ that dog?" + +"Lessing shut him in this evening. It was after----" + +I paused. All at once there came back to my mind the dog's behaviour +that afternoon, when Lessing dragged him back from the saw-mill, +bristling and rebellious--Lessing's own face when he joked about the +rat. It was near the identical spot where we had missed the dog +before, when he broke away from us on our way down, just before we +saw Menning's mother. Menning's mother ... and Menning himself had +been seen in the neighbourhood the night before. In a flash I saw +the whole thing clearly--Freeman's action, the ghost that haunted the +milldam, Rebecca's rifled cream-pans and the old woman with her +basket of chips. What a fool I had been! + +In a moment I had drawn the bolt and the setter was free. He barely +stopped to notice us; with a flash of his white chest and a +wide-flung yelp of relief he was off across the road and into the +woods. + +I caught Herrick's arm. "Lessing is at the saw-mill. Come on--I'll +tell you later!" + +"The saw-mill?" + +I saw his hand slip down to his pocket as we ran. The same thought +was in both our minds. We broke through the underbrush on the far +side of the road, stumbled by chance on the footpath and were racing +along it, shoulder to shoulder, while the setter's barking still +echoed in our ears. + +For a while his voice guided us. Then, abruptly, he was silent. We +paused on the edge of the clearing to take breath. All was +still--that closed-in stillness of the woods at night, when all +daytime life hushed. Before us loomed the old mill, its broken roof +and ruined timbers black against the sky. For a moment there was no +sound but the pounding of the blood in our ears, the dry rustle of a +dead bush as Herrick leaned forward, listening. + +Then suddenly, from somewhere in the recesses of the old building +itself, there broke on that tense stillness another sound--more +horrible to me than anything else--the hoarse choking breaths and +muffled worrying of a dog at grips with his enemy. It came, not from +the main floor of the mill, but from the basement where the +water-wheel hung. There was a doorway on the near side of the mill, +formerly used for carting away the sawdust, but it had been nailed +up, and remembering this I called to Herrick as I ran directly for +the steep slope on the side by the sluice. Here there was open space +to squeeze through, and with Herrick close on my heels I trampled a +way through the breast-high weeds and bushes round the corner of the +building and gained an entrance. + +Within all was pitch black. The water was shut off, but a little +trickle still flowed through, dripping from the slimy motionless bulk +of the great wheel above us. The air was warm, heavy with the smell +of rotting sawdust and of something else, fetid and nauseous. The +worrying had ceased; we could hear the broken rapid breathing of two +bodies, there, unseen, somewhere within a few feet of us in the +darkness. I made a step forward, but Herrick clutched my arm, and as +he did so the fight broke out again with renewed fury, somewhere it +seemed up in the far corner, among the drifted sawdust. I could +recognize the setter's deep-throated snarls, the snap of teeth +seeking a grip, and with it was another voice, deeper and more +guttural--something wholly strange and horrible--something that +snarled and panted and coughed in choking gasps. The darkness moved; +there came the breath of a warm animal body, the straining of a heavy +weight flung against resisting wood, and then the nailed planks gave +way, the sudden square of the doorway was obscured by a tumbling, +heaving mass and the next instant we were alone--alone in the +darkness with silence round us and that fetid unforgettable smell on +the air. + +It was the same smell that Mary had complained of that evening, +wafted to us as we sat on the porch--the smell, I knew now, that I +had first noticed on the day I passed the Mennings' place in the +early summer. + +"Phew!" said Herrick. + +He struck a match, shielding the flame with his hands. The little +flicker threw out shadows high on the piled sawdust and gray ruined +walls. We could make out the huge mass of the wheel, the shafts that +ran to the story above, the great beams supporting the broken +flooring over our heads. The match spluttered and went out, but in +that instant it had shown us what we sought, a dark motionless figure +lying huddled in the far corner, where the sawdust sloped up in a +shadowy drift under the rafters. + +Herrick reached it first, his feet sinking deep at every step as he +scrambled up. I heard him draw his breath in sharply as I struck +another match, and by its gleam saw Lessing, one arm doubled under +him and the clothes nearly torn from his body, lying unconscious in a +saturated pool of blood. + +Of Mary there was no sign. + + + + +XXI + +THE THING IN THE WOODS + +Together we managed to get Lessing back to the house and laid him on +the couch, and while Herrick held the lamp I did the best I could for +his injuries with the means at my disposal. It was an ugly job. One +arm and shoulder were badly mangled and the collar bone broken; he +had lost a great deal of blood and there was a nasty contused wound +above the temple. A flicker of consciousness came back while I was +working over him, but the loss of blood told, and he lapsed back +again almost immediately. There were stitches to be taken; nothing +much could be done except to check the bleeding with temporary +bandages and as soon as I could manage single-handed Herrick rode off +to Lennox for help. + +In reality it was not long, though it seemed to me an eternity that I +kept that nightmare vigil, my ears strained for any sound from +without, bending all my will-power on my task to keep me from the one +thought that I dared not face, Mary. Where had she gone--what had +happened to her? I went over a thousand possibilities, trying to +find some reasonable explanation to which I might cling, though as +each moment went by the stillness became more and more a torture. If +she had merely missed her brother and gone down the road to call for +him we should have met her, or she would be back by now. If she had +been with him at the mill, or had followed there ... I thought of the +deep blackness of the water at the end of the dam, where we had +passed that evening, the sheer drop blow the sluice-gates, and +shuddered. + +It was with infinite relief I caught the approaching noise of the +motor cycle and saw Herrick reappear, followed only a few moments +later by Lennox with the light spring-wagon. It was decided to take +Lessing straightway to the doctor's house, where he could be better +looked after than in the bungalow. We laid a mattress in the bottom +of the wagon and lifted him on to this, and Herrick and I on the +motor cycle accompanied Lennox beyond the hollow at the foot of the +hill. Before we started Herrick, his face grim and set in the +lamplight, pulled out the revolver I had lent him that morning and +handed it to me. + +"Keep that, Austin. I bought another today. Lennox has his own." + +"There was an extra box of cartridges," I said, "in the table-drawer." + +"Lennox gave them to me." + +When we had seen the wagon well along the road we turned, and rode +back to the bungalow. + +"Now," said Herrick, when we stood once more in the lighted room, +"the first thing is to find Mary. And then ... there has got to be +an end to this. Are you ready to face it?" + +He did not need to ask me. I looked round on the little room, gay +and friendly with its rugs and books and the great bowls of +wildflowers that Mary loved--the countless little signs of her +occupation, a sweater flung across a chair, her work-basket of Indian +grass on the table--the room in which I had spent so many happy +hours, now suddenly sinister in its desertion. And then my eye fell +on the couch where we had laid Lessing, and the hideous litter I had +left in my haste--stained wads of cotton and the torn strips from his +shirt with which we had striven to check the blood before we carried +him up from the mill. + +"For God's sake," I exclaimed impulsively, "let's get that cleared +away before she gets back!" + +Before Mary got back ... the words died in my throat. But I gathered +up the telltale evidence all the same--every last scrap and +fragment--and thrust them out of sight behind the kitchen woodbox, +before I turned to Herrick. + +"We'll try Sliefers' first," he said. "There's just the possibility +she is there." + +It was a slight chance, and as it proved, fruitless. The farmer was +still up, and opened the door to us in stockinged feet. No one there +had seen Mary since the afternoon. Sliefer heard our errand with a +grave face. + +"There's no house she'd have come to but this," he said. "There's +only Scholl's and Nevill's at the Bend, and they were both asleep as +you passed? They're a-bed by ten. Besides, if there was anything +out of the way they'd either one of them have sent over here +straight. No. Unless the young lady's missed her way, or met with +some accident...." + +He looked at us doubtfully. It was no time to mince matters. We +told him, as briefly as we could, what had happened that evening and +how we had found Lessing at the mill. + +He heard us out, his jaw set grimly. When we had finished he rose +without a word, a tall, still stalwart figure in his stockinged feet, +and crossing the kitchen took down his gun that hung on a rack above +the door. + +"I guess I'm coming with you," he said. + +I glanced at Herrick. He nodded. + +"Three are better than two, Austin. We may be glad of an extra hand +before the night's out." He turned to Sliefer, who had laid his gun +on the table, and was pulling on a pair of heavy boots. "Have you +got a good dog? I don't mean the collie." + +"Aye. There's old Spot, back in the barn. He'd pick up a trail +anywheres. Nor he ain't none too friendly to Menning, either, that's +one reason we've kep' him tied up, most of the time. Now I guess +I'll step up an' leave word with Mother." + +He opened the stairway door and tip-toed up, curiously noiseless on +his heavy feet. We heard whispering, a smothered exclamation; then +he came down, gently closing the door behind him. + +"I ain't told her nothing, only that you'd missed Miss Lessing and we +was going out to hunt her up. There's no need she should know about +the rest of it. This ain't no woman's job, nor it ain't no sheriff's +job either. If they'd come to me first off I know every track in +these woods back an' forth, and it won't be easy for anyone to get +away from me, not once we pick his trail up. Menning can run these +woods like a fox, but he won't run far, not when I got a gun in my +hand. Not that I'd be scared to meet him anywheres, gun or no gun, +and I bet he knows it." + +A strange expression flitted across Herrick's face as he measured the +farmer's sturdy figure with his eye. But he only said gravely: +"You're a good neighbour, Mr. Sliefer. As you say, this is no +sheriff's job now; it's up to us. And we're going to see it through." + +We closed the door behind us. + +"I told Mother to bolt that, once we're gone," Sliefer said. "Reckon +we don't need no lantern." + +"Better not," Herrick said. + +The old man crossed to the barn and came back a few minutes later +with the dog on a chain, a cross-bred hound by the look of him, +heavily built and brindled white and brown. + +"That's what they used to call a bear-dog," the farmer said, "when I +was a boy. The breed's pretty well died out now. I've had old Spot +here eleven years, and I had his mother an' grandmother before him. +You don't see 'em nowadays, any more. They raise these light-built +hounds now, but they ain't the fighters these dogs were." + +The farmer was a brisk walker. He picked his way through the woods, +turning here, pausing there, at what seemed to us invisible signs and +landmarks, making his way unerringly through the trees and +undergrowth, the hound close to his heels, till presently we stood +once more on the open road a little below the bungalow. I looked +eagerly towards the house, only to see the turned down light burning +just as we had left it. + +"We'll try here first," Sliefer said. + +He took two or three turns about the road and clearing, but the dog +took no interest. We recrossed the road to the farther side, and +here, among the underbrush near the path Herrick and I had taken, he +showed the first signs of keenness, sniffing to and fro, his nose +laid close to the ground. In a few moments he was off at a leisurely +trot along the path. + +"Picked up the other dog's scent, most like," said Sliefer, watching +him. "Come on. We'll find him at the mill." + +He took us by a short cut through the bushes, across a cleared space +of stumps and blackberry vines, and turning into the woods at the +left again, brought us in a few minutes on the sawmill road. The +hound was there before us, moving shadow-like about the clearing. +When we came up to him he was clearly puzzled and uneasy. He moved +warily, his forefeet stiffly braced, his ears laid back, the hair +along his spine bristling as he snuffed to and fro. + +I touched Herrick's shoulder. "Do you see that? It's the same way +Leo was acting this afternoon." + +"Give him time," said Sliefer. "I know Spot. He ain't made his mind +up yet." + +Shifting the gun under his arm, he pulled out a can of tobacco and +began to roll a cigarette. Somehow that natural matter-of-fact +action did much to relax my tense nerves. With Herrick I watched the +hound closely. He approached the broken doorway, sniffed, peered, +circled off a couple of times and then, as though suddenly making up +his mind to it, plunged inside, only to reappear an instant after and +set off, head down, with a queer muffled whine, through the +underbrush. I made a move to follow but Sliefer checked me. + +"Wait a bit. He ain't sure yet. He'll give us the holler when he's +sure started." + +He was right. After a little while Spot came back, breaking cover +near the back of the mill, and returned to us, uneasiness and +perplexity in every line of his taut body. With his eyes fixed on +his master's face he waited, eager and yet strangely reluctant, and +again with a thrill I noticed that involuntary bristling of his +spine, the trembling of his lower jaw, as though at some unfamiliar +and disturbing proximity. Twice the farmer spoke to him +encouragingly, and twice the dog circled off, checked abruptly and +came back. Sliefer grew impatient. + +"I don't know what's got into the dog. He ain't never acted that way +before. Hey there, Spot! Get to it! Fetch em' boy!" + +For a moment the hound eyed him. Then, with the same abruptness with +which he had entered the mill he raised his head, gave a low whine, +and was off in a straight line through the underbrush. Almost +immediately we heard his first call, the warning bell-like note of a +hound on the found trail. + +"He's picked it up all right," the farmer said. "Come on. I back +Spot to keep a scent once he's got it." + +We started after him, keeping as steady a pace as we could in the +darkness. It was well that Sliefer was with us. He made his way +with the unerring ease of a man used to the woods from boyhood, to +whom night is almost the same as day, and all we needed to do was to +follow in his tracks. The hound seemed to be keeping an even course, +some couple of hundred yards ahead of us; his deep warning cry, +pitched always on the same two notes, rang out at intervals and +Sliefer had no difficulty in guiding his way by the sound. + +Once, in the neighbourhood of the Menning house, the dog was at +fault; he hesitated and all but turned aside towards the +out-buildings, but in the end picked up the scent again and struck +out in a northerly direction through the woods. + +For nearly an hour we followed him, through tracts of dense second +growth and across spaces of stony pasture, out again on a back road, +with an occasional darkened house tranquil in its grassy yard, +looping and turning here and there, but on the whole keeping a fairly +straight course. We crossed two sloping pastures, plunged into a +thicket of young trees, and presently found ourselves on a space of +rising ground, strewn with huge boulders and set with stunted juniper +and spruce. + +Ahead of us the hound's voice rang out clear and mournful, as it +seemed to me with a deepening note. Sliefer paused and looked about +him. The moon was rising. It showed the sharp line of hills, +densely wooded on either side, with the dark cleft of a gorge +between. Through the gap in a ruined stone fence we could see a cart +track, all but obliterated, that wound into obscurity. + +"I know this place," the farmer said. "It's near what they call +Rocky Hollow. I haven't been here in years, but I used to know it +well when I was a boy. I sort of suspicioned he was heading for +here, right along. Once in them big rocks in there you won't trap a +man easy, not if he knows his way. If we'd had time to head him off, +now." + +I glanced at Herrick. He was staring straight at that narrow +closed-in gorge, his eyes keen and fixed. + +"Is there any other outlet there?" + +"Not easy. It's straight-up rock at the far end and the woods are +pretty thick. A man would have to make slow going, either way he +took it. If he's in there----" + +We followed the cart track till it ended in a little grassy clearing +from which a few steps brought us to the spot Sliefer had called +"Rocky Hollow." It was a small, narrow valley, filled with masses of +piled boulders, some enormous, some small, the remains evidently of +some ancient moraine. They looked as if giant hands had flung them +there in sport, one upon another. Seen by daylight, with the black +wooded hillside shutting it in, the place would be desolate enough; +by the faint growing moonlight it had a look indescribably grim and +sinister. Here, one felt, among those barren stones and piled +boulders, that took fantastic shapes in the play of light and shadow, +would be a fit hiding-place for anything evil. + +Higher up the ravine, near us but hidden from sight, the hound was +baying furiously, no longer the bell-like note that had guided us +through the woods, but a hoarse deep voice of warning and anger. We +made our way towards the sound, scrambling over the stones, and found +him standing before an opening between two boulders, where an +overhanging rock formed a sort of rough cavern. There was a glimpse +of something white within, and for a moment my heart turned sick with +fear. But it was only a sheet of crumpled greasy newspaper that had +evidently contained food. There were the charred remains of a small +campfire and an old tin can lay in one corner. + +Sliefer caught the dog by his collar as we peered inside. He picked +up the crumpled sheet. + +"A week old," he said. "Here's where he hung out, all right. No +tramp ever comes here; it's too far off the main road." + +Stooping forward, I had rested my hand on the rock at one side. It +was warm to the touch, and I turned quickly to the blackened embers +near. + +"He's not far off, either. That fire----" + +"Is cold," returned Herrick quickly, touching the ashes. + +The stone was warm, I could have sworn it. Somebody, only a moment +ago, had lain there. There was a sudden oath from Sliefer, and I +turned to see, a hundred feet down the gorge, something that twisted +and moved, a stealthy misshapen shadow, between the gray boulders. +It was a bare glimpse, seen in a flash and blotted out immediately +against the grayish rocky background, but in that second I thought of +Lennox and I too felt cold down my spine. + +The farmer's face had gone a curious sickly white. He stood holding +his gun stupidly, with fingers that shook. + +"That ... that weren't no man ... that...." + +"Did you see?" cried Herrick. + +There was a sharp note of excitement in his voice. I nodded. "It +... went off down there." + +Sliefer had pulled himself together. He swung round, his face +suddenly savage. + +"Man or beast, by God, we'll get him now! _That_ shan't run the +woods another night, not if I drop in my tracks!" + +He shouted to the dog, but the hound, with the rare stupidity of his +race, was still snuffing round the cave. Dragged away, he tried one +scent and another in and out the boulders, but the tracks had been +crossed and confused a dozen times and we lost precious minutes +before he picked up his right trail at last, halfway down the gorge, +and was off again on his slow loping gait. + +He ran silently, this time, and in deadly earnest. Only occasionally +his voice came back to us, low-pitched and warning. Downhill, over +the shoulder of that same sloping pasture we had crossed before, then +a wide detour to the right, skirting a swamp where our feet sunk deep +between the tussocks--more open fields and then again back to the +woods. On we kept doggedly, through hours it seemed to me--more +slowly now, for the steady pace was beginning to tell on us--in +silence only broken by Sliefer's heavy breathing as he forged ahead, +his ear bent always for the sound of the dog's voice. By his old +hunter's instinct he knew which way the hound was running, and was +able to save many a turn by short cuts which we followed +unquestionably, relying on that seventh sense of his which never +seemed to fail us. + +It was getting on towards dawn when Sliefer paused finally at a +cross-road which seemed to me familiar. + +"See that?" he said. "There's the right-hand fork that turns back to +the Bend, past the old Sullivan house. He's circling back on his old +tracks. A while back I thought he was trying to make that tract of +woods the other side of the State road, but the dog's headed him out +of that. It's getting on for daylight now, and the way I figure it +he'll try and make for some place he knows. He daren't show up round +the village and I reckon he'll keep clear of the old house, for he +knows that's been watched. By the way he's headed now, it's either +the saw-mill or some other place near it. He knows he can't give +Spot the slip again in the woods and he's hard pushed--ain't got much +chance now to pick an' choose. I say we won't waste time but jest +chance it and cut in right here towards the mill. There's an old +wood-road just a little ways further up that'll be easier going than +if we took the long way round." + +"Right," said Herrick. He loosened the revolver in his belt. "Are +we agreed? Whatever we see, close in on it, but don't fire unless +you have to." + +Sliefer gave him a quick, grim look. + +"I reckon nothin'll get by me again. That don't happen twice. We +ain't any bunch of girls that he can fool with his damn play-acting." + +Again that queer look flitted across Herrick's face, but he said +nothing, only fell in silently beside me as we followed Sliefer into +the path. + +It was darker here. The trees shut in close about us. Sliefer was a +few paces ahead. Presently I felt Herrick's hand on my arm. + +"Less than half an hour to daybreak! God, Austin, if we can only +beat him to it!" + +He quickened pace as he spoke. + +"What do you mean? We'll get him anyhow." + +"We'll get Menning, yes ... but we mayn't get the thing that attacked +Dick. Yes, they're the same, but--Austin, I can't explain to you +now, but I tell you we've got to make every effort in these last few +minutes. If Sliefer's right, and he's doubled back, we're all right. +Otherwise...." + +"But he must know----" + +"He _knows_. He isn't playing for safety; he knows that's over. He +wasn't playing for safety when he made that big detour, he's playing +for time. It's time that matters, and it's there we've got to beat +him. Austin, Sliefer talks of play-acting, but is it play-acting +that can keep a man ahead of a dog for the best part of the night? +Was it play-acting that half-killed Lessing? No, if we're ever to +know the truth we've got to know it now, within these next twenty +minutes. Ah!" + +It was the hound again, sudden, sharp, and near at hand. Sliefer had +been right after all. We were within a few steps of the saw-mill +clearing, but the dog was there before us. He was circling the +ground, barking furiously as he had done in the gorge, his attention +divided between the mill itself and the group of trees, with an old +dead chestnut among them, that stood within a dozen feet of the +building and a little nearer the sluice gate. But he left the trees +when we came up and flung himself savagely against the boarded +doorway. + +"That was open when we left it, Herrick--do you remember?" + +He took out his revolver. + +"Go round to the back, Sliefer, and take the dog with you. Austin, +watch this end from outside. I'll go through; I've got the +flashlight." + +"I'm coming with you," Sliefer said. + +"All right. One must stay outside, in case ... Austin, it'll be you, +then. If anything--_anything_, you understand--tries to get past +you, shoot to cripple it. Fire low. Remember what I told you!" + +He flung the door open; I heard the quick rush of the dog's feet. +With every nerve tense to straining-point I listened, but the seconds +slowly passed and there was no further sound. I moved a few paces +back, to get a clearer view of the building and waited. + +From within I fancied once I could hear Sliefer's voice. The +flashlight moved to and fro, its gleam visible through the cracks of +the old walls. Now they were going through the upper floor. + +There was a stillness in the air, that chill hush which comes just +before dawn. Already the light was changing, becoming faintly clear +and shadowless. Somehow, with this drawing-near of daylight, of the +return to common day shapes and things, the nightmare feeling of +those dark hours dropped from me; I seemed to see it as something +fantastic, monstrous, a bad dream. All the events of the last few +hours crowded in upon me--the finding of Lessing, Mary's +disappearance, our grim chase through the night woods. How far were +these things connected--what was Herrick's idea? What were we +after--a criminal, hunted and desperate, endowed with animal strength +and cunning, but yet a man like ourselves--or a figment of Herrick's +brain? + +From within the building I heard an exclamation, the dog's sharp +whine. Nerves suddenly taut, I waited, my eyes fixed on the broken +doorway. And then some instinct--I don't know what--made me turn and +look up. + +I was standing almost directly under the old dead chestnut, near +which the dog had been nosing when we arrived. Its bare greyish +limbs, gnarled and twisted, stretched above me, bare in the growing +light. Bare--but as I looked one of those twisted boughs seemed to +stir and change, heave slowly, detach itself in some monstrous way +from the rest and take living shape. I tried to cry out, dragged +helplessly at my revolver, but before I could get it free something +fell on me, clutching, I was borne to the ground beneath a hairy +living weight, bestial, loathesome, an unnameable horror. + +For an eternity, it seemed to me, we struggled there. The thing was +stronger than I, and strive as I would I could get no clear view of +it. Coarse long fur, indescribably filthy, was against my mouth and +nose, and my clutching hands met in it helplessly. I made a supreme +effort and twisted my head to one side till my face pressed the +earth, in a blind instinct of preservation. Long curved nails caught +at my throat, and once I fancied a hand that was partly human. +Strangely, through it all, I kept my mind somehow clear; the fear of +losing consciousness was stronger in me than any other. This, I +remember thinking, was the Thing that had attacked Lessing, that had +killed the two cyclists, falling on them as it had fallen on me. +Herrick was right ... I would tell Herrick ... and I wondered what +they would say when they found me. Darkness shut down; I was lying +under a heavy mountain, and then the mountain lifted, I heard the +hoarse snarl of the dog and an oath and Herrick's voice crying +sharply: "Don't shoot!" + +There was a blinding report close to me. Somehow I staggered to my +feet. Herrick was supporting me. The smoke cleared away, and +through it I could see Sliefer, the gun in his hands, and on the +ground something that writhed and twisted in beastlike shape and yet +cried out with a human voice and dragged itself, still dreadfully +crying, up the slope to the water's edge, swayed there for a +sickening instant and fell with a splash into the black depths below. + + + + +XXII + +THE SILVER BULLET + +Pale clear sunlight; early twittering of birds; the clean freshness +of dawn.... + +The lamp was still burning on the table when we reached the bungalow. +Herrick put it out. Then he laid a hand on my shoulder. + +"Austin----" + +There was a clatter of wheels on the road outside. Someone had +pulled up outside the house. It was a boy--Hiram Scholl's +boy--taking his load of milk-cans over to the creamery. + +"I don't know as you've missed that yeller dog that belongs here," he +called out, "but if the folks were looking for him I thought I'd tell +you. He's over to the little house back on our wood-lot up the road. +I called to him, an' I dunno but he's hurt or something, for he's +just layin' there an' he wouldn't come. So if you want to go after +him I guess he's still there." + +"Leo!" I exclaimed. + +Herrick turned to me quickly as the boy drove off. "What house is +that?" + +"Hiram Scholl's. It was empty, but someone said that Menning's +mother--Herrick, there's just a chance!" + +I sprang for the motor-cycle, leaning where we had left it the night +before, by the side of the house. In a moment I had it out on the +road and Herrick swung to the seat behind me as I started the engine +up. + +Five minutes brought us to the spot where the house stood, a tiny +frame shack set on a space of half-cleared woodland back from the +road. To reach it we had to climb the slope of stony pasture that +divided Scholl's land from the woods, and as we came in sight of the +house, half-hidden among the stunted spruce and juniper trees my eyes +caught a yellowish spot stretched on the doorstone. + +It was the setter. He whined as I called to him, but without +turning, his gaze fixed on the closed door. His fine coat was +draggled and matted with blood about the throat; he sprang to his +feet as we came near and began to paw at the doorway. + +I knocked. No one moved within. The one window was close shuttered, +but I fancied, listening, I could hear a faint crooning sound from +inside. + +Together we set our shoulders to the door. It gave way, and we found +ourselves in the one tiny living-room of the house. It was dark and +close there was a disorder of household things piled here and there. +On a small broken rocker in the middle of the floor, Mrs. Menning sat +huddled, swaying to and fro, with the low crooning mutter we had +heard from outside. She had an old coloured handkerchief tied over +her head and a small silver cross was hung on a thin chain round her +wrinkled neck. Her aged face was impassive; her eyes, uncannily keen +and bright, seemed to look straight through us into distance. + +"Where is Miss Lessing?" I asked. + +She made no sign of having heard me, only kept up that faint +unintelligible muttering. Herrick went over and shook her gently by +the shoulder. + +"Where is Miss Lessing? You got to tell us." + +She twisted her shoulder from his grasp and sunk lower into the +chair, her eyes averted. My ears had caught a sound overhead. There +was no stairway in the room, but behind a pile of furniture a wooden +button betrayed a door that I had taken for an ordinary closet. +Hastily, I began to drag the things aside. The old woman saw my +purpose and slipped with sudden agility to her feet, her eyes blazing +with anger, but Herrick thrust her aside and in an instant we had the +door open and were upstairs, the dog at our heels. + +"Mary!" + +I caught her in my arms--unhurt, thank God--and carried her down, +through the shuttered room, past the old muttering woman--out into +the open and the clean air. + +"Oh, Austin, that old woman! She met me on the road--I had gone to +call for Dick, and she said she was looking for me; that Dick had had +an accident and they'd brought him to this house and sent for me. +She told me to go upstairs, that he was there, and she shut the door +and wouldn't let me out. There was no window; no one could have +heard me from outside. And then Leo found me, I heard him barking +and she tried to drive him away, but he wouldn't go. Good old Leo!" +She put her arm round the setter, who was trying hard to reach her +face with his tongue. "I knew he'd help you to find me. Austin, +where _is_ Dick?" + +I had to tell her, breaking it as gently as I could. + +"Will you take me to him at once, please--now! Austin, I knew +something was going to happen--I felt it. That's why I was worried, +last night--I couldn't explain. And then shut up alone there, not +knowing what it was.... That old woman--she was dreadful, but she +wasn't unkind to me. Do you suppose she _knew_--that she just wanted +to get me somewhere safe?" + +Who knew? Was there perhaps a spark of human feeling in that strange +warped soul, half unhinged by her own troubles, something that Mary's +chance kindness, that afternoon by the saw-mill, had reached and +touched? It might have been. + +We walked down the hill, and I took Mary on the motor-cycle behind me +as far as Lennox's, leaving Herrick to follow on foot. Dick was +better. He had passed a feverish night, Lennox said, but the fever +had left him with dawn and he was in an exhausted but normal sleep +when we arrived. + +I left Mary with him, and walked back along the road to meet Herrick. + +"And now," I said, "tell me--tell me the whole thing. Jack, what was +it?" + +We were near the old twisted cedar by the hollow, the tree by which +Aaron had met his death that spring. Herrick sat down on a boulder +by the roadside and began to scrape slowly at his pipe. + +"I told you about Menning and his wild-man stunt--all that I found +out the other day. Menning had a criminal twist and he knew how to +turn that trick to his own ends. It is far easier to simulate the +grotesque--the superhuman, if you like--than most people suppose. +Isn't that, after all, the basis of the witch-doctors' power? Even +an ordinary man becomes horrible if you put a mask on him. And +remember that Menning had a streak of abnormality to start with, and +the thing may very easily, as I said, have become an obsession with +him. Anyway that's the best explanation one can put on it, and the +one that Lennox and our friend Sliefer, and Lessing himself, will +agree upon. After all, it pretty well covers the facts." + +I remembered his words the night before. + +"Then what did you mean about the dawn?" + +Herrick was silent a moment. + +"We're all well out of a bad business, Austin," he said then. "Don't +you think we'd better let it go at that?" + +"But you had another theory. You had it that morning, after the +fire. You wouldn't tell me what it was. But I don't imagine you've +changed your mind altogether." + +"No, I didn't change my mind," Herrick said. He put his hand into +his pocket. When he withdrew it there lay, on his palm, the little +battered silver button that Lennox had first shown us. + +"You remember, Austin," he said, "that I recalled one or two facts to +your mind that evening. This was One of them. I want you to look at +it again." + +"It is a button," I said. "A button such as you find on some +European peasants' costumes." + +"Westphalian peasants, such as Menning's mother came from. Lennox +overlooked that fact, though as the button is badly defaced we can +excuse him. I'll help you out, Austin. It is of pure silver, very +soft, and it has been hammered to form a rough bullet that could be +fired from an old-fashioned muzzle-loading gun." + +"I don't see how that helps you." + +"I want you to think," he said, "what particular associations there +are with a silver bullet." + +I stared at the little pellet in my hand, striving with some vague +recollection at the back of my mind. + +"They were used against ... against ... some sort of witchcraft," I +said at last. "I don't see----" + +"They were used against lycanthropy," said Herrick. + +I stared at him. I suppose I looked stupid. I felt it. It was as +though some spectre, strange, ghastly, altogether of another world, +had risen up suddenly there before us in these quiet Pennsylvania +woods. + +"A mania--subject imagines himself some beast, resulting in actual +physical transformations--exhibits depraved appetites--frequently +homicidal..." I recalled haltingly the words of an old treatise. + +"They did more than believe they were animals," said Herrick dryly. +"They seem to have succeeded in impressing their belief pretty +strongly upon their neighbours and relatives. Did you ever dig into +old records of that sort, Austin? The were-wolf stories of the +Middle Ages? They're rather grim reading." + +I was silent. + +"Remember our facts," he went on. "Menning's mother came from +Westphalia, one of the parts of Europe where the belief in +lycanthropy is most widely spread and where its existence is still +credited among the peasants of today. Lycanthropy was believed to be +a hereditary taint, as transmissible as insanity, which may lie +dormant through one or more generations, so much so that at one time +the relatives of an accused man or woman were all held suspect. +There seems to have been more or less of a mystery about the Mennings +altogether, chiefly on account of the mother's character, and most +particularly in regard to Jakey. Remember also what Lennox said +about the strong persistence of type in both sons, although of +different paternity. We have Lennox's assertion that there was +something peculiar, 'animal', about Jakey, which certainly impressed +him, but which he seemed rather at a loss to describe. Then there is +that unexplained incident when Jakey was with the circus. Whatever +it was, it was something that gave such a shock to the +proprietor--who, remember, had originally conceived the idea of the +wild-man stunt himself, so wasn't likely to have been taken in by +acting--that he sacrificed his best drawing card then and there +sooner than have Jakey remain another night with the show. All the +brother would say was that he 'guessed Jakey acted too well,' which +in itself is fairly significant. + +"That Aaron knew, or suspected, certain facts about his brother, +there is no doubt. Why else should he so obstinately oppose any +medical examination, and particularly the idea of Jakey being removed +even temporarily from their control? Why did he make the very +singular statement that Jakey was 'all right in the daytime,' and +that _at night they shut him up_?" + +"And the bullet?" I asked. + +"Do you remember that Aaron promised if it became necessary he would +take steps? What those steps were he did not say, but I believe +myself that this silver bullet answers the question. Remember the +horror in which lycanthropy was held, the revulsion it excited, and +think whether he would not have resorted to the gravest measures +sooner than have the whole concealed story come to light. + +"I think that Aaron had already determined that night, unknown to +their mother, to put an end to the whole thing; that he went out to +seek his half-brother at the time, and under that form, when alone it +would be possible to bring himself to do that which he felt had to be +done. Jakey must have suspected. There was a struggle between the +two, and it was Aaron who was killed, before he had time to use the +silver bullet which he dropped, there, in the moment of unexpected +attack. The old mother must have known the truth; through all her +horror and superstition her love for her first son survived, and +together they concocted the story of Aaron's absence with the wagon. +That she paid bitterly, many times over, for her impulse, there is no +doubt. She was now completely under Jakey's dominion--the dominion +of a being little better than a monster, whom she dared not now +denounce, for who would have believed her story? + +"It is certain that what we saw last night is what attacked Lessing, +and had attacked him previously. It reached him through the +skylight, but not altogether as he thought. It climbed. You will +remember that in every instance the attack was from overhead." + +"But the thing that... that I touched..." I cried. "It was _furry_! +It----" + +I stopped short, taken with a sudden shudder. + +"I know," said Herrick. + +"I had hoped," he went on, "that you didn't retain any very definite +impression. That's why----" + +"_You_ saw it." + +"We all saw something. We thought we did." + +"And Sliefer..." I paused. "Herrick, there was something else. I +remember now. You were holding me. And you told Sliefer not to +fire. I wondered..." + +"They say there is a change, one way or another, at the moment of +death," Herrick said. "I knew it. I tried to stop him." He paused +a moment. "I was too late. That's all." + +We sat there for a moment, not speaking. Then Herrick knocked his +pipe out against the boulder and rose to his feet. + +"Come on back to the house. Mrs. Searle will have breakfast for us, +and we both look rather a wreck!" He laid a hand on my shoulder. +"Take my advice, Austin, and put this whole thing out of your mind. +I told you in the beginning--there's the other explanation; why not +stand by it? As I say, it covers all the facts. The rest is between +us three. Look at it how you will, whatever happened last night +happened for the best." + +I remembered the thing that had cried and twisted on the ground, and +was silent. Herrick was right. + + +As soon as Lessing was able to travel we went down, the three of us, +to the little cottage on the Sound which they had rented for the +remainder of the fall. Herrick came down for an occasional long +week-end, and it was during one of these, when we were lounging out +on the beach before supper, that he handed me without comment a +little cutting from a Pennsylvania local paper. + +It was headed "Man's Body found in Millpond" and stated briefly how +some boys, fishing in Sliefer's dam, had discovered the body of a +man, believed to be that of a certain Aaron Menning, chicken pedlar, +who had disappeared from the neighborhood mysteriously some weeks +before. The body, which had lain for a considerable time in the +water, showed the trace of two bullet wounds, but owing to the +difficulties of medical evidence after so long a time had elapsed it +was not possible to prove that either of these had been sufficient to +cause death, which was brought in, on the finding of the coroner's +jury, as accidental. "It will be remembered," the article concluded, +"that equally mysterious circumstances attended, less than a year +ago, the death of Menning's stepbrother, whose body was found at a +spot not half a mile from the scene of this later tragedy. Though +there was no suggestion of foul play at the time, rumor later +connected Aaron's name, in no uncertain terms, with his stepbrother's +death, a rumor which his disappearance served to strengthen in many +persons' minds. Whatever the circumstances which led to this second +tragedy, and how far the two may be connected, will remain for ever a +mystery, since Aaron's death closes definitely the last chapter in +the story of this singularly ill-fated family." + +"What's that?" asked Lessing. + +I slipped the cutting into my pocket. My compact with Herrick still +held good. + +"Only some more nonsense of Jack's." + +Lessing grinned up at me from where he lounged, one bandaged arm +stretched above his head, in the deck-chair. + +"I should think, as an engaged man, you ought to be getting +impervious by this time." + +"I am. Don't you worry!" + +Over the lawn, through the warm-scented dusk, came Mary's voice from +the porch. + +"Austin!" she called. "Dick! Are you three going to sit there all +night?" + +Herrick moved away. + +"Come on," he said over his shoulder. "Supper is ready, and I won't +risk being told again that I monopolize you all the day!" + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76059 *** diff --git a/76059-h/76059-h.htm b/76059-h/76059-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2e712a --- /dev/null +++ b/76059-h/76059-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13037 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + +<head> + +<link rel="icon" href="images/img-cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + +<meta charset="utf-8"> + +<title> +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Thing in the Woods, by Harper Williams +</title> + +<style> + +body { color: black; + background: white; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +p {text-indent: 1.5em } /* 4% */ + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 200%; + text-align: center } + +p.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center } + +p.t2b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center } + +p.t4b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 60%; + text-align: center } + +h1 { text-align: center } +h2 { text-align: center } +h3 { text-align: center } +h4 { text-align: center } +h5 { text-align: center } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +p.thought {text-indent: 0% ; + letter-spacing: 2em ; + text-align: center } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.footnote {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +.smcap { font-variant: small-caps } + +p.transnote {text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.quote {text-indent: 4% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76059 ***</div> + +<h1> +<br><br> + THE THING<br> + IN THE WOODS<br> +</h1> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> + BY<br> +</p> + +<p class="t2"> + HARPER WILLIAMS<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> + Robert McBride & Company<br> + New York<br> + 1924<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> + Copyright, 1924, by<br> + ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY<br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> + Printed in the<br> + United States of America<br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> + Published :: 1924<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3b"> + CONTENTS<br> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + CHAPTER<br> +</p> + +<p class="noindent smcap"> + I. <a href="#chap01">Lennox Says Good-Bye</a><br> + II. <a href="#chap02">The Light in the Woods</a><br> + III. <a href="#chap03">A Mysterious Call</a><br> + IV. <a href="#chap04">Dutchman's Hill</a><br> + V. <a href="#chap05">The Dead Cyclist</a><br> + VI. <a href="#chap06">A Boycotted Household</a><br> + VII. <a href="#chap07">What Happened in the Laboratory</a><br> + VIII. <a href="#chap08">I Go Fishing</a><br> + IX. <a href="#chap09">Problems</a><br> + X. <a href="#chap10">The Chicken-Huckster's Hoe</a><br> + XI. <a href="#chap11">Jakey Walks</a><br> + XII. <a href="#chap12">Mr. Crowfoot</a><br> + XIII. <a href="#chap13">An Afternoon Drive</a><br> + XIV. <a href="#chap14">The Cry in the Night</a><br> + XV. <a href="#chap15">Suspicions</a><br> + XVI. <a href="#chap16">I Catch a Burglar</a><br> + XVII. <a href="#chap17">A Midnight Chase</a><br> + XVIII. <a href="#chap18">Lennox's Story</a><br> + XIX. <a href="#chap19">The Mill Dam</a><br> + XX. <a href="#chap20">What We Found in the Saw-Mill</a><br> + XXI. <a href="#chap21">The Thing in the Woods</a><br> + XXII. <a href="#chap22">The Silver Bullet</a><br> +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> + THE THING<br> + IN THE WOODS<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap01"></a></p> + +<p class="t2"> +THE THING IN THE WOODS +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<h3> +I +<br><br> +LENNOX SAYS GOOD-BYE +</h3> + +<p> +I had just made my rounds of the wards for the +last time, that June evening, fifteen years ago, +when Murchison, my chief, came to me with the +open letter in his hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Here's the very chance to suit you, +Haverill," he said. "Read that! A chap named +Lennox, in Pennsylvania, wants a substitute for +three months. Small country practice—no +work of any account, I imagine—and a good +holiday thrown in. Just reached me tonight, +by chance." +</p> + +<p> +I had finished my term as <i>interne</i>, and was +leaving the hospital the next day. The whole +summer was before me, for after three years of +heavy work I owed myself one good vacation +before settling to the task of building up a +private practice, and I was glad enough of the +chance to turn it to advantage. Every dollar I +had saved I had put aside for the future +struggle, and Murchison knew it. How to take a +three months' vacation on next to nothing was +no easy problem, and only such an opportunity +as this, for which I had been searching vainly +for weeks past, could solve it. +</p> + +<p> +I glanced at the signature below the letter. +</p> + +<p> +"George Lennox.... I used to know a +George Lennox at college." +</p> + +<p> +"Probably the same man. He asks me to +recommend some one reliable. Funny idea. He +can't have much opinion of his country +colleagues, or he'd simply hand the patients over. +There can't be so many of them, in a place like +that. Rather fussy, I gather! Well, it might +suit you. I thought I'd ask you before I spoke +to anyone else." +</p> + +<p> +It suited me so well, in prospect, that I sat +down at Murchison's desk and wrote off my +application then and there. Lennox's answer +came promptly, dated from the small town in +Pennsylvania where he had been settled for the +past five years. Beyond a few details about the +place, his letter told me very little. He was +leaving for his health, to take a three months' +holiday abroad, and he wanted a substitute as +early as possible. The practice was that of the +average country doctor in a not over-populous +neighbourhood. It was a bracing district, not +far from the mountains; there was good fishing, +and some shooting in the fall, and with the +arrangements he offered it fell in perfectly with +my own plans. He was urgent that I should +take over the work as soon as I could, and after +a brief correspondence I settled up my affairs in +the city—they were not many—packed my few +belongings, and went down. +</p> + +<p> +It was a small and primitive station at which +I was deposited, after a somewhat uninteresting +train journey. The place struck me, even in +those days, as a survival of an earlier age; one +of those little backwaters left behind in the flow +of progress. As I stood looking about me at +the stretch of dusty road, the hotel, and the few +clustered shops that marked the beginning of the +village street, the station-master came up. +</p> + +<p> +"You're for Doctor Lennox, ain't you?" he +began. "His buggy's there waitin'. I reckon +Pete's over at the saloon, puttin' in time! I'll +step over an' tell him." +</p> + +<p> +I put my valise in the solitary vehicle he +indicated, with a smart roan mare in the shafts, and +a moment later "Pete" appeared, drawing a +furtive black hand over his mouth. I addressed +him curtly; if he was to be my factotum during +the next three months there would have to be +less of these rather free-and-easy ways. He +eyed me civilly, with some curiosity, muttering +a darkie's invariable ready excuses; climbed to +the buggy seat, tilting his straw hat over his +eyes, and we set off. +</p> + +<p> +The village was not large. It seemed that +Lennox's place was some mile and a half out, +and our road led for the most part through +woods. It was pretty country. The trees were +tall and close-growing, hickory and oak, with +young saplings pushing a sturdy growth +between. There were boulders everywhere, the +sullen granite that in this district crops out +through the earth's scant surface, making the +small farmer's life a perpetual harvest of stone +picking. To me, fresh from the city pavements, +it was picturesque enough. Once a hare loped +across our path, and I saw Pete shift the reins +to scrabble in his coat pocket. He cast a +half-sheepish glance at me as he did so. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you lost something?" I asked. +</p> + +<p> +"No, sah! I jest recollected suthin'. Raikon +dat hyar remin' me!" +</p> + +<p> +"Meeting a rabbit is supposed to be lucky, +isn't it?" I remarked, lighting a cigarette. "It +seems to me I've heard so." +</p> + +<p> +He looked at me suspiciously, and I knew that +I had divined correctly the reason of that sudden +dive. "Dat so, sah?" he said guilelessly. "I +'spect all dem things jes' depend!" +</p> + +<p> +A few yards further the road took a bend. +</p> + +<p> +Along the narrow footpath at the side a girl +was walking. She was dressed in a short +golf-skirt and cotton blouse, with a man's Panama +on her head, and from her look I took her for a +chance summer visitor rather than a resident. +I noticed her only casually, but as the buggy +drew abreast she lifted her head, and instantly +I felt Pete swerve against me on the seat. His +clumsy action made the horse start. The girl +laughed, a little mocking ripple—I heard her +with a glow of annoyance—and we shot off at +increased pace up the road. +</p> + +<p> +I turned to the man angrily; he had drunk +even more than I supposed. His face was actually +pale, as pale as a darkie's can be. His hand +was in his pocket again, and he turned my blame +promptly on the horse. +</p> + +<p> +"Yoh clumsy trash, ain' yoh look whar yoh +goin' a-skeerin' folks that way! I'se larn yoh +suthin' some day!" +</p> + +<p> +"What's the matter with you?" I said. "Can't +you drive steadily?" +</p> + +<p> +He fell to muttering, apologetic, conciliatory. +</p> + +<p> +"'Deed, sah, dat hoss ain' got no sainse! I +done druv dat hoss two years, an' I <i>know</i> her, +sah! Dere ain' no hoss round got less sainse. +Sho as we met dat hyar I knew there was suthin' +boun' ter happen! I ain' got no use fur meetin' +hyars in de mawnin'—no, sah! I ain' doin' no +business wiv 'em!" +</p> + +<p> +We reached Lennox's house without further +incident. It was a grey stone house, standing +back in a pleasant garden, with barn and small +orchard adjoining. Lennox was out on the porch +to welcome me. Pete led the mare swiftly +round to the side and began to unharness; I +think he was anxious to escape any possible +comment I might make to the doctor on his +condition. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, so you've got here!" Lennox said as +we shook hands. "I'm very glad. Did you have +a tiresome journey? Come inside. I'm very +glad to see you!" +</p> + +<p> +His tone was cordiality itself. To my ears +it had even a note of relief. It struck me +instantly, as I looked at him, that he had been +through some recent stress of worry, if not +ill-health. He had aged considerably. He was +older than I, and his hair already a little grey +at the temples. His face was lined and troubled, +and he had an uneasy way with his hands I did +not like. I had known him always as a rather +steady-going, plodding sort of fellow, not given +to excess of nervous energy in any form, and his +present appearance gave me something of a +shock. +</p> + +<p> +He led the way into the house. Dinner was +already served. Lennox followed the country +custom in dining early. I don't know how the +staid elderly woman, who was both cook and +housekeeper, and who was to fulfil the same +offices for me, would take to such an innovation +as dinner at seven. I ate well after my journey, +Lennox but sparingly. He offered me a high ball +with the meal, but drank only water himself. +</p> + +<p> +"I've got into country ways," he said. "I'm +afraid you'll find the place a bit dull, Haverill, +but you'll manage all right. You can get most +things you want, down here; the tradespeople +aren't bad." +</p> + +<p> +Over our meal we talked chiefly of the +University days when we had been more or less +friends, though Lennox was already a senior +when I entered, of the men we had mutually +known and of their careers, and lightly only, of +our own. Lennox was not over-talkative, but he +seemed more at ease as the day wore on. I +could see he was glad to have me definitely there, +was anxious to start, but I was not quite prepared +for his answer when I asked him what day he +thought of leaving. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, tomorrow! I shall get the twelve-thirty +to the city. Everything is ready." +</p> + +<p> +I suppose I looked rather blank, for I had +counted on a couple of days at least in his +company before I was left alone. +</p> + +<p> +"You'll find everything easy to hand. I'll +go over things with you this evening. It isn't +a specially busy place here, you know!" +</p> + +<p> +"And you'll be away three months?" I asked. +</p> + +<p> +"More or less.... My dear fellow, I want +a change! I want it frightfully!" I agreed with +him. His eyes were wandering round the room +as he spoke. "The work's nothing here—worse +luck! You'll have practically a holiday. But +I'm quite run down. There've been some ... some +family worries. What's the matter, Pete?" +</p> + +<p> +The coloured man had come into the room. +</p> + +<p> +"De mare's done got anudder shoe loose. I +'specs I'll hev to take her into town." +</p> + +<p> +"Again? You should have had it seen to this +morning early." He spoke irritably. "Take her +in, and don't be late back!" +</p> + +<p> +"Yessah!" +</p> + +<p> +Pete went out lingeringly, and I more than +suspected from his entry that he had been +listening, or attempting to listen, to our talk. +</p> + +<p> +"That man," I said when he had gone. "Do +you find him all right?" +</p> + +<p> +"Pete?" Lennox lit a cigar. "He's invaluable! +You'll find him a splendid servant. He's been +with me three years, and I wouldn't part with +him for a good deal. He has his faults, as all +darkies have, but he's thoroughly trustworthy!" +</p> + +<p> +I thought of the furtive groping in his pocket +when we passed the hare. +</p> + +<p> +"A bit superstitious, eh?" +</p> + +<p> +"What do you mean," Lennox fairly wheeled +on me. "Has he been talking?" +</p> + +<p> +"I imagine he carries an assortment of amulets +about with him." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, that!" He looked vaguely relieved. +"All of 'em do. He's a walking catalogue of +superstitions. It's the only thing we have rows +about. I detest all that nonsense!" +</p> + +<p> +"I'll have a talk with him, some day," I said. +</p> + +<p> +"I wouldn't advise you to. In fact, I wouldn't +advise you to encourage him on the subject in +any way. I think it's better to leave those things +alone. Darkies are darkies, and no power on +earth would persuade Pete against his rabbit's +foot. No! Steer clear of that, my dear fellow, +and you'll find him all right." +</p> + +<p> +We spent the afternoon in the surgery. Lennox +showed me a detailed account of his cases—they +were very few—in a notebook. He had +evidently been at pains that I should find no +trouble in taking over the work. +</p> + +<p> +"I've left some things in rather a mess," he +said. "I told you I'd been upset lately ... but +I think you'll find it all right." +</p> + +<p> +Supper was at six. Pete, true to his word, +brought the mare back well before dusk. I could +hear him whistling in the coach-house as he hung +the harness away. +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose you'd find use for a motor-cycle +here?" I asked Lennox as we sat in the dining-room +after supper. It was barely dark outside, +but the housekeeper had already drawn the +curtains and lighted the lamp. I would have +infinitely preferred my pipe on the porch, but +if Lennox chose to stew indoors this weather it +was no business of mine, and it would only be +forced on me for one evening. +</p> + +<p> +"I used to have one," he said, "but I gave +it up. The roads aren't very good here, and I +found a horse better. Did you bring one?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's coming on tomorrow." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh? Well, you'll suit yourself. The roads +aren't very good at night, but the mare is used +to them. Not that I have many night calls." +</p> + +<p> +It was a few minutes after that he looked at +me suddenly as we sat opposite one another +across the unlighted hearth. +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose you're fit—in good health and all +that. I didn't ask." +</p> + +<p> +"Perfectly." +</p> + +<p> +"That's good. Never had any nerve trouble, +for instance?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not an atom!" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm glad. It's as well to be sure, you know." He +laughed, rather apologetically. "I was quite +lucky to get you." +</p> + +<p> +It seemed that Lennox kept early hours. It +was barely half-past ten when he proposed +turning in. The heavy country air had made me +sleepy, and I was ready enough to follow his lead. +</p> + +<p> +Lennox's room was directly over the surgery, +with which it communicated by a little staircase, +convenient for night calls. Both the surgery and +the room above it had been built as a later +addition to the house. The bedroom would be mine +later; for the present I was put into a small extra +bedroom across the landing from his own. +</p> + +<p> +I slept heavily, but a little after midnight, as +I judged, I was roused by hearing movements +below stairs. People were talking; I fancied I +heard a woman's voice, low and querulous. +Evidently it was not a call too urgent to wait for +daylight, for a few moments later I heard the +floor of Lennox's room creak as he returned to +bed. I fell asleep again easily, and when I woke +the second time it was broad daylight. +</p> + +<p> +I asked Lennox at breakfast if there was any +fresh call for the day. He looked at me +narrowly. +</p> + +<p> +"Only the scarlatina case in the village and +the woman at the Bend," he said, referring to +the two cases he had mentioned the day before. +"The woman is doing all right, but you might +look in during the afternoon. The buggy will be +back by one o'clock." +</p> + +<p> +I smoked a pipe out in the orchard while he +finished his packing. No one came up the road +the whole morning except the baker and a +travelling tinsmith; Lennox was right when he said +I could take my work easily. The house stood +in a pretty enough position. There were woods +behind and about, skirting the orchard, and +in front, on the other side of the road, a strip +of pasture sloped to a little brook. The nearest +dwelling was some two hundred yards away, +down the road to the village. It belonged to a +small farmer, I learned, a Pennsylvania Dutchman, +as were most of the people about. +</p> + +<p> +At twelve the mare was hitched and waiting, +and Lennox came to bid me good-bye, after a +few final instructions. We shook hands, and +as he climbed into the buggy and took up the +reins I don't think I ever saw a man's face +express more utter and absolute relief. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap02"></a></p> + +<h3> +II +<br><br> +THE LIGHT IN THE WOODS +</h3> + +<p> +My first week passed uneventfully. I was called +out twice only, on trivial cases, and I put in my +spare time exploring the neighbourhood generally. +I was jaded with city life, and hospital +work in particular, and it was a perfect tonic to +do nothing. I was too lazy even to fish, though +an excellent trout stream ran not far from the +house, through the woods at the back. Neighbours +were not likely to trouble me, nor I them. +So far I had had but little intercourse with the +people about, except for professional visits and +the usual country exchange of greetings when I +drove into the town for my mail. In Lennox's +time this task had fallen to Peter, but it was +some years since I had enjoyed the use of a horse, +and I took pleasure in these short trips. +</p> + +<p> +The housekeeper was subdued but efficient; +she looked after my wants methodically enough +and rarely offered conversation, which suited me. +With Peter I got on all right. As Lennox had +said, he was docile, willing and capable, and did +his work reliably. He seemed devoted to the +mare, and would converse with her at great +length over the morning grooming. +</p> + +<p> +Lennox had a fairly good library. In ways +the house was comfortable enough, and I fancy +he must have had some small private income in +addition to the proceeds of his practice. +</p> + +<p> +I had my first tiff with Pete when I had been +there nearly a fortnight. Kerosene had given +out; the oilman had omitted to call as usual, +and Mrs. Searle, the housekeeper, only made me +aware of the deficiency at supper-time. After +the meal I ordered Peter to hitch up and drive +down to the village to get it. +</p> + +<p> +To my utter amazement he refused almost +point-blank to go. He had a lot of work to do; +the buggy wasn't washed down yet; the mare +hadn't finished her feed. He'd go first thing +in the morning. +</p> + +<p> +"Nonsense, Pete," I said. "The oil's wanted +now. The mare hasn't done five miles today, +and it'll do her good! You washed the buggy +this afternoon, because I saw you." +</p> + +<p> +"Dat so, sah?" He rubbed his head. "Yes, +I specs dat's so, now I think. I dis-remembered +it." +</p> + +<p> +"Then hurry up. You can be back by eight." +</p> + +<p> +His eyes rolled on me. +</p> + +<p> +"But it done get <i>dark</i> by eight, sah!" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, you can take the carriage lamps!" +</p> + +<p> +"I ain't gwine take no kerridge lamps—no, +sah! All de time I wuk fur Doc' Lennox he ain' +ask me to do no thing like that—no, sah; an' ef +he ask me <i>now</i> I ain' gwine do it." +</p> + +<p> +"But you've driven the doctor at night, you +fool, time and again!" I cried, losing patience +with him. "Don't stand there and tell me lies!" +</p> + +<p> +He kept his ground, obstinate, deferential. +</p> + +<p> +"Yessir, I done druv Doc' Lennox. I ain' +sayin' nothin' 'bout that. I'se gwine drive you, +doctah, ef yoh ask me, but I ain' gwine no village +affer dark tonight ter git no ker'sine. I ain' +gwine monkeyin' wi' no ha'ants, an' I d'want no +ha'ants monkeyin' wid <i>me</i>!" +</p> + +<p> +That potent darkie word "ha'ants" gave me a +clue. I strode out into the kitchen to Mrs. Searle. +</p> + +<p> +"What's this nonsense with Peter? What is +he afraid of?" I asked her. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Searle's grey faded eyes rested on me a +moment inquisitively. Then she went on with +her dish-washing. +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon Peter's scared of the dark, sir," she +answered civilly. "Them niggers is jest like +that! The oil can wait, as well as not. There's +more'n I thought, or I wouldn't have mentioned +it to you." +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't going to wait," I said. "I'm not going +to have this absurdity in any house I live in!" +</p> + +<p> +I went back to Pete in the dining-room. I had +left the doors purposely open, and I swear he +fairly squirmed when he saw me come in. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, Pete," I said. "You put the mare in +at once. You're going after that oil and I'm +going with you, if you're such a holy coward that +you're afraid to drive a mile of road after dark +alone!" +</p> + +<p> +If I had hoped to shame him, it was without +result. +</p> + +<p> +"All right, sah!" he answered grandly, though +I saw the relief in his eyes. "Ef you'se gwine I'se +gwine. Dey ain' no one gwine call <i>me</i> no cowa'd, +doctah!" +</p> + +<p> +He went off to put the mare in, and in ten +minutes I heard the grate of wheels before the +house. It was already dark outside, but a moon +was rising, and before we had driven far the +carriage lamps were scarcely needed. Pete was +subdued; I think he was trying to preserve his +dignity in silence. I was tempted to a lecture, +but remembered what Lennox had said of the +futility of trying to combat darkie superstition. +I was sure that Pete still carried his beloved +rabbit foot, and I hope it gave him comfort on the +drive. +</p> + +<p> +We reached the village, took in our can of oil, +which Pete stowed under the buggy seat, and +started to drive back. The moon was full +overhead now, but obscured more or less by fleeting +clouds. I saw Pete glancing several times at +the buggy lamps. Presently he slackened the +reins a little. +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon we mought put dem out now, sah! +Dey ain' no need er dem lamps to see by." +</p> + +<p> +"As you like, Pete. Get down and put them +out. I'll hold the reins." +</p> + +<p> +"I ain't got no need er gittin' out, sah! I +kin raich 'em from here." +</p> + +<p> +He leaned over the splashboard at some +inconvenience and extinguished the lamps, it +seemed to me with unnecessary alacrity. I could +not put his anxiety down altogether to the price +of kerosene. +</p> + +<p> +"What's your worry about those lamps, +Pete?" I asked. +</p> + +<p> +He turned guileless yet uneasy eyes upon me. +</p> + +<p> +"Dey jest ain' no <i>sainse</i> burnin' 'em! Dey +worry a pusson drivin' dem lamps do." +</p> + +<p> +I let it go as one of his unplumbed darkie +mysteries, and we drove on. We were just +entering upon the densest stretch of wood +between the house and the village when a curious +sound caught my ears. It was like the scrambling +rush of some big bird through the trees +to the left of us; a night-hawk, probably, though +the confused wing-flaps were more like a +turkey-buzzard. Coming unexpectedly on the silence +it startled me, but before I could turn to Pete he +had dropped the reins and flung himself upon +me, a frenzied babbling lump. He clung and +muttered, while I strove to hold him off, and the +mare, taking fright at the moment, sent the light +buggy rocking from side to side on the road. +I gave the man a push that nearly threw him out. +Once free of his clutch it was only a moment's +work to secure the reins, but we shaved a bad +accident by the skin of our teeth. Luckily we +were not far from the house. My grip startled +Pete into sanity—it was at least flesh and blood +that had him there—and by the time I had +pulled the mare to a standstill before the gate +he was able to get out, shaking still miserably +from head to foot, and seize the bridle. +</p> + +<p> +Between us we got the mare unharnessed and +into the stable. She was in a lather over head +and shoulders, and I stood over the cringing +Pete while he rubbed her down. I think he +never ceased praying the whole time. +</p> + +<p> +Whatever the noise was that had frightened +him—and I put it down to no worse than an +owl at the most—it had frightened him +thoroughly. There was no use attempting reason +or rebuke with the abject tooth-chattering being +that followed me to the house, and I sent him +to bed with a grim reminder that I would talk +to him on the morrow. He did not go up +immediately, however. For a long while I heard his +voice in confabulation with Mrs. Searle in the +kitchen, where I did not doubt he had made haste +to secure every door and window against the +outside air. +</p> + +<p> +I lit a pipe and threw myself down in an +armchair in the surgery, where I had been in the +habit of spending the last few evenings, putting +things to rights after my own fashion. If Pete's +superstition was going to obsess him to this +extent my summer was likely to be a lively one! +No bird that ever flew was sufficient to justify +the extraordinary state into which he had +thrown himself. Whiskey might be at the root +of it, despite Lennox's faith; I had kept him +under my eye in the village, but I knew that +no human vigilance is sharp enough to keep a +darkle from drink if he has the tendency. The +sideboard was usually unlocked, but tomorrow +I determined to take the key into my own possession. +</p> + +<p> +Wanting something to read, and to lazy to go +back into the sitting-room, I fell to examining +the contents of the surgery bookshelves. There +were the usual array of medical books, some new, +some old; apparently Lennox had kept himself +more or less up to date. At one end, on the +upper shelf, were several volumes on mental +diseases, "Lunacy and its Causes," Hoffman's +"Congenital Insanity," and one or two recent +pathological treatises that I knew only by title. There +was a well-known medical work on criminology +among them also, and from their number and +disposition, and the several paper bookmarks +that caught my eye here and there, I judged that +this particular study must have had some attraction +for Lennox. There was nothing, however, +that interested me for the moment, or that +promised cheerful reading. I had not come down +here to dive into works on mental disorders or +the bound reports of Lunacy Commissions as +preliminary to passing a healthful holiday, and +I fell back on a month-old magazine that was +lying on the surgery table. +</p> + +<p> +When I had finished it I turned the lamp +slightly down and went out on the porch, with +the idea of trying to locate again the noise that +had caused such catastrophe that evening. +</p> + +<p> +The woods about were very still; not a leaf +moved. The silence had an intensity that was +almost oppressive. Clouds had gathered, +obscuring the moon, and it was quite dark. +</p> + +<p> +Presently, above the line of the farther +tree-tops, a gleam of light shot up. It moved and +swept, like a white arm outstretched against a +black curtain. So near as I could judge, it came +from the direction of Sliefer's dam, a point some +two miles away, and at first glimpse I thought +it might be a fire, but the whiteness of it put that +out of the question. It had the appearance of a +crude searchlight, but it was less definite in ray +and moved less steadily. More than anything +else, it reminded me of those "jackies" that +children love to make with a bit of prism refracted +on a wall. +</p> + +<p> +For several minutes I watched it, then, as +suddenly, it was extinguished, twitching back +into darkness, and I turned and went indoors. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap03"></a></p> + +<h3> +III +<br><br> +A MYSTERIOUS CALL +</h3> + +<p> +I had prepared a stern lecture for Pete while +I was shaving next morning, but I was destined +not to give it. While I was yet in my room +Mrs. Searle called me from below stairs. +</p> + +<p> +"You're wanted over to the Bend, doctor, for +Mr. Lessing." +</p> + +<p> +I finished my dressing quickly and went +downstairs. Coffee was on the table. Mrs. Searle +sniffed as she set a cup before me. +</p> + +<p> +"You'd best take something to eat before you +start, doctor. It's a two'n-a-half-mile drive. +</p> + +<p> +"Who is this Mr. Lessing? Did they say what +it was for?" +</p> + +<p> +I fancied she looked at me rather curiously. +</p> + +<p> +"He has the new bungalow in the woods there. +It's just before the turnin' to Sliefer's dam." +</p> + +<p> +She spoke as though with a reluctance to name +either the house or its owner, and there flashed +across my mind instantly a remembrance of +the first day Peter had driven me to the Bend, +a few clustered cottages, hardly enough to be +called a village, situated some few miles up the +road. We had passed near the house then, just +visible through the trees, and I had asked him +who lived there. He had answered with the +same reluctance I traced in Mrs. Searle's reply. +Evidently this Mr. Lessing had for some reason +managed to make himself unpopular in the district. +</p> + +<p> +Peter had the buggy ready, and I started off. +The mare was fresher than usual this morning, +and covered the two and a half miles at a brisk +pace. +</p> + +<p> +The road ran level for some distance, then +dipped to the little hollow known as Dutchman's +Hollow, where it crossed a shallow stream, +nearly dry in the summer. At the top of the hill, +when you had crossed the stream, was the +turning to the new bungalow. +</p> + +<p> +The woods were emerald with early sunlight, +and the dew hung heavily on brambles and +undergrowth. Birds were everywhere, and I +saw a Baltimore oriole, a rare flash of black and +orange, fly across my path as we neared the +stream. Above the marshy space at the foot +of the hollow many dragon-flies were glancing, +jewelled and wonderful, and a small spotted +turtle flopped from his stone in midstream at +the near crunch of wheels. +</p> + +<p> +I let the mare take her own pace climbing +the hill. The morning was too fine for hurry, +even on an unknown errand. When we reached +the top a glint of unpainted timber through the +trees led me to the left, and a few yards up the +cross-road I came out on a little clearing in which +the house stood. +</p> + +<p> +It was an ordinary one-story cottage, newly +built, and as yet with no attempt at garden or +enclosure. What struck my eye immediately was +a curious sort of annex, standing near it. It +was a rather high, square building, windowless, +but with one big skylight like an artist's studio. +Yet it had not the look of a studio, and the +skylight was so raised on four glass sides as to +suggest a rude attempt at an observatory. +</p> + +<p> +I tied the mare to a sapling in the shade, and +went up to the house. The front door stood +open, and the interior showed the usual +living-room of a summer cottage. It was furnished +scantily but artistically. There were a few good +rugs on the floor, a divan heaped with cushions, +a piano, and a set of low bookshelves supporting +a great bronze jar filled with wild-flowers. There +were few ornaments about, but those few were +chiefly of Eastern origin and good of their kind. +It looked a room belonging to people of taste +rather than wealth. +</p> + +<p> +The divan was so placed in one corner, near +a window screened by drawn curtains, that it +was a full moment before I realized that it was +occupied. A man lay there face downward among +the tumbled cushions, in what seemed the +apathy of complete exhaustion. He was clothed +only in a suit of thin woolen pyjamas, that +showed the meagreness of his frame. He was +so thin and slight that he seemed to fill scarcely +any space on the wide couch. He was evidently +not asleep, but he had not turned his head at +my entrance—I could see only a patch of +rumpled dark hair against the pillows—and I +crossed the room and paused beside him. +</p> + +<p> +"Mr. Lessing...." +</p> + +<p> +He moved, looking at me with petulant, +questioning eyes from a face that showed every +sign of physical and nervous exhaustion. +</p> + +<p> +"Who are you? I sent for Doctor Lennox." +</p> + +<p> +"My name is Haverill. I am taking Doctor +Lennox's place for a few months." +</p> + +<p> +"The devil you are!" He lifted his head, +regarding me again intently with those queer +dark eyes, the eyes of a boy set in a prematurely +worn face. "Then Lennox has bolted!" +</p> + +<p> +"He has gone to Europe for the summer," +I said, looking him full in the face. "He told +me he needed a change, and I gathered from his +looks he was pretty overworked. So I'm afraid +you'll have to put up with me for a while." +</p> + +<p> +"That's like old Lennox! I thought he'd +do it some day." He slipped back again among +the cushions. "Where are you from?" +</p> + +<p> +I told him. He repeated the name of the +hospital after me mechanically. "I didn't know +Lennox had gone when I sent over." +</p> + +<p> +The tone was ungracious, but it was more +the ungraciousness of a child than a rational +being. I could see that the man's nerves were +fairly on the raw. Judging roughly, I should say +that he had not slept for several nights. I +ignored the hint. +</p> + +<p> +"As I'm here," I said pleasantly, "I might +as well look you over, don't you think? What's +the trouble?" +</p> + +<p> +For a full minute he did not answer. I fancied +he was turning me over very closely in his mind. +</p> + +<p> +"The usual thing," he said then. "Overwork—like +Lennox's!" A grim smile flashed momentarily +on me. "I've been scratched up. That's +what I want you to see to." +</p> + +<p> +"An accident?" +</p> + +<p> +"You may call it a dog!" +</p> + +<p> +He turned, with a visible effort. Until now +he had been lying almost upon his face. The +light came obscured from the window, but as +I bent forward I realized with a thrill of what +extraordinary physical endurance that slight +body was capable. The right sleeve of his +pyjamas had been torn down—it seemed at one +single rip—and the edges of the flannel were caked +and sodden with blood. As he threw open the +jacket with the other hand I saw two long +parallel scratches of the same depth running +transversely across his chest. +</p> + +<p> +My first act was to draw the curtain aside. +He lay there blinking at me in the full light, +watchful to see what change my face betrayed. +</p> + +<p> +"What you think, eh?" +</p> + +<p> +"I think," I said quietly, "that the sooner +that dog is shot the better." +</p> + +<p> +I made a movement to draw the jacket down, +but at the touch of my hand on his shoulder +he winced for the first time. +</p> + +<p> +"I must have warm water," I said. "I suppose +you are not alone here?" +</p> + +<p> +Almost as I spoke a woman came into the +room by a second door; evidently his wife. She +was young, and her face would have been noticeably +beautiful but for its expressionlessness. +She had deep eyes, well-moulded features, and a +very clear pallid complexion, but her whole +appearance suggested a slatternliness, evinced +in the tumbled silk wrapper, the carelessly +combed-back hair. I think I have never seen a +woman, least of all in any crisis, look so utterly +stupid and bewildered. Her eyes were pink +about the edges, where powder had been hastily +dabbed to hide recent tear-marks. I imagined +that her first impulse in any emergency would be +to weep. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you warm water in the house?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'll get it." +</p> + +<p> +She disappeared toward the kitchen, and I +followed her in. I wanted for the moment to be +out of range of the man on the couch, and I +thought it would give her a chance to say +something to me herself of what had happened. +</p> + +<p> +She took up a bowl haphazard from the +dresser, put it down again and took another, +always with the scurrying half-frightened +movement with which she had entered the room; +went finally through a doorway into what appeared +to be an outer kitchen to fetch the water. +There I heard another woman's voice, clear-cut, +decisive, with what seemed an undertone of +forced cheerfulness to it. Scraps of a +conversation reached me while I waited. +</p> + +<p> +"They won't send it up. I'll have to go down +later. And Scholl will let us have bread if I +fetch it. I thought I'd better bring three now." +</p> + +<p> +"Mary, it's awful!" +</p> + +<p> +"Did that new man get here?" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Lessing's voice was discreetly dropped, +drowned by the accompanying splash of water +from a kettle. But I heard the other say: "Is +he any good?" +</p> + +<p> +"Mary, sh-h!" +</p> + +<p> +She fluttered back, and I took the bowl of +water from her hands. Lessing was stretched on +the divan just as I had left him, waiting my +return. There was no chair near, and I looked +about me impatiently for something on which +to set the bowl, while the woman stood by in a +sort of helpless indecision. Just as I was about +to put it on the floor someone pushed Mrs. Lessing +gently but promptly aside and came forward. +It was the girl whose voice I had heard in the +kitchen, and I saw in the second's glance I gave +her that it was she whom I had seen on the road +the first morning I came down. +</p> + +<p> +"Give me the bowl," she said. "You can manage +better if I hold it." +</p> + +<p> +I stripped Lessing's jacket off as gently as +I could, sponging the sleeve where it adhered +to the torn flesh. He must have been lying +untended there for some considerable time +before my arrival. When I had laid bare his chest +and shoulder to the light I set my lips to an +involuntary whistle. The man looked as if he had +been fighting with some wild animal. No dog +had made those wounds. They were not bites; +they were long raking cuts, as if the flesh had +been torn by heavy blunt-pointed claws. A +bear might have done it, but there was no sign +of bruising or tooth-prints. The scratch on the +shoulder was a good half-inch deep in one +place—it nearly laid bare the bone. +</p> + +<p> +He had bled freely; the jacket sleeve was +soaked and stiff. I set to work to cleanse the +blood from his chest, and as I did so I saw other +wounds of the same order, some old cicatrices, +others newly healed scars of perhaps a month +old, but none so deep as the present ones. I +glanced sharply at the man's hands. They were +well kept, the fingers stained a little with acids +as though in photography, the nails smooth and +closely trimmed. +</p> + +<p> +The scratches were ugly. I had slipped an +emergency case of tabloids into my pocket on +starting, and asking for fresh water, I dissolved +two in it. The girl watched me steadily, holding +the bowl of solution while I cleansed the cuts +carefully, bit by bit, and I fancied that in her +presence Lessing was at particular pains not to +flinch. The man's endurance was extraordinary. +I had noticed something else on his arm, but +of that I did not immediately speak. +</p> + +<p> +"You want iodoform?" said the girl. "There +is some in the house." +</p> + +<p> +She fetched it, with diachylon and a roll of +sterilized gauze such as is used in hospitals, +from the drawer of a Japanese cabinet. I +dressed the cuts—it took some little time—and +helped him into the clean shirt she brought me. +When I straightened my back at last we were +alone. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you mind," said Lessing, "going to the +cabinet there and getting me a bottle that's in +the top left-hand cupboard? There's a glass +with it." +</p> + +<p> +I found both. I drew the glass stopper from +the bottle and smelled it. It contained a familiar +cardiac stimulant. +</p> + +<p> +"It's all right. It's the stuff Lennox gave me." +</p> + +<p> +I poured him a dose and he drank it. Then +he dropped back on the cushions again, watching +me. I drew a chair up, but on second thought +remained standing. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Mr. Lessing," I said, "I don't know +that I'm able to do anything more for you under +the present circumstances. If you feel like +wanting me you know where to send." +</p> + +<p> +"What are you in a hurry for?" +</p> + +<p> +"I am in no hurry." +</p> + +<p> +"Then sit down." +</p> + +<p> +"If you think there is anything to be gained." +</p> + +<p> +I sat down. I had dealt with his type before, +and I waited. +</p> + +<p> +"Well?" he said. +</p> + +<p> +"You must know, my good fellow, that there's +no use calling a medical man in to tell this kind +of nonsense! I'm not a fool." +</p> + +<p> +"Then there," he answered, "you differ most +charmingly from old Lennox!" +</p> + +<p> +I could no more be angry with him than with +a sick child. +</p> + +<p> +"No dog made these scratches!" +</p> + +<p> +"I said you might call it a dog," he reminded me. +</p> + +<p> +"I might call it an ourang-outang and be +nearer the mark! Am I to conclude that you +keep a menagerie in your house, Mr. Lessing?" +</p> + +<p> +"Suppose I told you I did it myself?" +</p> + +<p> +"I should call you a liar," I said. "I have +seen your hands." +</p> + +<p> +"Old Lennox swore I did. I told you he was +a fool." +</p> + +<p> +"We'll drop the scratches," I said, walking +to the window. "I don't know that it really +matters if you choose to tell me they were done +by a tame mud-turtle in the back yard. But one +or two things you'll have to stop if I'm looking +after you." +</p> + +<p> +"Such as?" +</p> + +<p> +"You want sleep, man! You look as if you +hadn't seen bed for a week." +</p> + +<p> +"I sleep in the daytime. I have to work at +night." +</p> + +<p> +"What—photography?" +</p> + +<p> +"Chemistry ... of sorts." +</p> + +<p> +"Chemistry doesn't have to be done at night, +of necessity," I answered. "You're overworked +and you're using yourself up. You know +you've hardly a whole nerve left in your body +at this moment." +</p> + +<p> +"I've plenty in my shoulder," he returned +drily, and I smiled involuntarily as our eyes +met. There was a fascination in the man, despite +his eccentricity, his absurd persistence in +what seemed to be a tissue of childish and +reasonless lies, to which I held no clue. +</p> + +<p> +"That won't hurt you long. I'll look in again +tomorrow." I wheeled on him abruptly, of +purpose. "How long have you been taking morphia?" +</p> + +<p> +I expected denial. Instead his eyes merely +narrowed, appreciatively. +</p> + +<p> +"A year, more or less. I take it when I can't +sleep." +</p> + +<p> +"Lately?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not for several weeks." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, you have," I thought. Aloud I said: +"I'll make you up something else, for a change. +Can you sleep now?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'll have a try." +</p> + +<p> +"Better get to bed." +</p> + +<p> +"I sleep better here," he said, and without +more ado turned over with his face to the wall. +I waited a moment, but he took no further +notice of my presence, and I went out. +</p> + +<p> +The girl who had helped me with the dressing +was outside, feeding sugar to the mare. The +two seemed old friends. I saw, as I drew near, +that she bore a strong resemblance to Lessing +himself, sufficient to proclaim her his sister. She +had the same deep hazel eyes, but her hair was +lighter; it showed a bronze glint as she stood +bare-headed in the sunshine. It would have +been an attractive face but for a look of cynicism, +almost a hardness, in the lines of her mouth. +I was glad that it was she I encountered instead +of Mrs. Lessing. Here was at least one practical +person in this puzzling household. +</p> + +<p> +She turned as I came near, but without moving. +</p> + +<p> +"Your brother will do all right," I said +without preamble. "Keep him quiet today, and if +possible make him sleep. He wants rest badly." +</p> + +<p> +She nodded, brushing the crumbs of sugar +from her hands. +</p> + +<p> +"How long has this been going on?" +</p> + +<p> +"The not sleeping?" She looked at me +sharply. "About four or five nights." +</p> + +<p> +"I thought so. Can't you make him?" +</p> + +<p> +She looked at me almost contemptuously, as +though wondering that my interview with Lessing +had taught me so little. "Does he look as +if I could?" +</p> + +<p> +"You can do it if anyone can," I said. "I +shall be back tomorrow. If by any chance I +am wanted..." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll come and fetch you," she said. +</p> + +<p> +"Good." I turned to unfasten the mare, then +paused. "You have a dog here, I think. May +I see it?" +</p> + +<p> +For a moment she seemed about to hesitate. +"If you like," she said then. +</p> + +<p> +I followed her round to the side of the house. +A small sort of tool-shed stood not far from the +odd building I had noticed, and which I saw +now was not an annex, but separate from the +house. The door of the shed was closed, and +from within a whining and scratching greeted +our approach. Without a word she turned the +key and threw open the door. +</p> + +<p> +A magnificent orange setter rushed out +nearly knocking her down. There was nothing +savage in his demeanor; he licked her hands and +face and even tried to include me in the +demonstration, but what caught my attention was his +inexplicable behavior the next moment. He +bounded straight toward the big outbuilding, +but within a few paces of it he stopped, whining +and sniffing, his ears laid back, his body trailed +near to the ground, as though in some abject +fear. Whining still, he dragged himself back to +our feet and crouched there, trembling. Miss +Lessing's voice broke the silence. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you advise," she said, "that he should +be destroyed as dangerous?" +</p> + +<p> +"I think," I replied, "that is hardly necessary, +at present. What's the matter with him?" +</p> + +<p> +Her lip curled a little as she looked at me. +She shrugged her shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +"He is frightened. Do you believe in the +instinct of dogs, Doctor Haverill?" +</p> + +<p> +"What is that building used for?" I asked +curtly. +</p> + +<p> +"It is my brother's laboratory." +</p> + +<p> +"Then what in heaven's name——?" I +checked the exclamation on my lips. She was +looking at me as her brother had done, but she +seemed, at all events, to make up her mind more +quickly. "Come with me," she said quietly. +</p> + +<p> +We walked to the building. There was a +door at the side fitted with a Yale lock, but it +stood slightly ajar. She pushed it open. The +interior consisted of one single room, that seemed +from its fittings half laboratory, half workshop. +There were shelves around, containing bottles, +chemical apparatus, a few books stacked +together. A long table, littered with tubes and +glasses, stood almost directly under the skylight. +One corner of the room, to the right of the table, +was screened off to form a dark-room, with the +ordinary square of red glazed fabric let into the +door. +</p> + +<p> +I looked around the place with curiosity. +There was nothing here to account for the dog's +behavior. The contents of the table at one end +were confused and overthrown, and a strip of +cocoa matting, which had evidently lain under +or near the table, had been rolled and flung in +one corner. The boards were noticeably cleaner +where it had been lying, and near the edge of +this clean space there was a stain, smudged as +though purposely by someone's foot, but to my +eyes an obvious blood-stain. +</p> + +<p> +Directly under the skylight, which was some +four feet square, was the apparatus that for the +moment puzzled me. It was mounted on a high +stand that brought it near to the glass, and it +looked like an acetylene lamp with very powerful +concave reflectors; the kind of reflector, on +a smaller scale, that is used in some lighthouses. +The size of the lamp was quite outside the +requirements of the room for ordinary lighting +purposes, and the reflector seemed planned to +throw the light outside the building, and in any +desired direction. As I looked at it there flashed +across my mind the recollection of the curious +sort of searchlight I had seen the night before +from my porch. Here was the solution of it, +but I was puzzled to imagine what Lessing could +be doing with an apparatus of this kind in such +a place. +</p> + +<p> +I turned to Miss Lessing. +</p> + +<p> +"Was it here that your brother spent last +evening?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes. He came out here about nine o'clock, +after dinner. He often works late, and we never +sit up for him. My sister-in-law went to bed +soon after; she had one of her bad headaches +that she has been subject to for the last eighteen +months. I sleep in the room next to hers, and I +went to bed about eleven. I am an early riser, +as a rule, and when I came out of my room this +morning I met my brother just coming into the +house." She paused, and I could see that she +was struggling with the recollection. "He +wouldn't let me touch him, and he only said +something about wanting to sleep, and that I +should send Doctor Lennox up to him. I left +him in the sitting-room and went straight off." +</p> + +<p> +"Cycled?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, walked. I have no cycle here. My +brother doesn't like me using one. If I had, it +would have saved time. I came through the +woods." +</p> + +<p> +"You were quick, anyway," I said approvingly. +"Now listen, Miss Lessing. Your brother +has had a severe shock; of what sort I know no +more than you. He will probably tell us in his +own time. For the present, I don't want him +worried in any way. I shall come again +tomorrow. If I may advise you, I would lock +this place and keep the key until he asks you +for it. Have you touched anything in the room +since this morning?" +</p> + +<p> +"No. It is as he left it." +</p> + +<p> +Then Lessing himself had removed the +tell-tale carpet. I thought a moment. +</p> + +<p> +"Was your brother wearing pyjamas when he +went out last evening?" +</p> + +<p> +"He changed into them after dinner, I remember. +It is hot in here of an evening, and he +nearly always wears them to work in." +</p> + +<p> +"Did you hear any noise last night?" +</p> + +<p> +"No." She hesitated a moment. "My sister-in-law +was very restless last night, and she was +talking in her sleep. She seemed to be in pain, +so I went in to her, but she was sound asleep and +I went back to bed. I heard nothing outside." +</p> + +<p> +"Where was the dog?" +</p> + +<p> +"Shut up. We used to have him loose, but +he's sometimes noisy at night, and lately my +brother has taken a fancy to have him shut up." +</p> + +<p> +"It doesn't seem likely that he would trouble +him here," I said. +</p> + +<p> +She bit her lip. +</p> + +<p> +"Doctor Haverill, what is it?" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear young lady," I said, "I can know +nothing until your brother is able to give us +some account." I had almost said "chooses," +but I changed the word on a look at her face. +"After all," I said lightly, "you must remember +I am here only as a doctor, and a stranger at +that!" +</p> + +<p> +I turned back to where the mare was waiting, +and she followed me, locking the door behind her. +</p> + +<p> +"I shall be at the house all day, if I'm wanted, +but I don't think I shall be. Meantime, you'll +remember what I've told you. Your brother +will have to make up sleep before he can tell us +anything at all." +</p> + +<p> +She seemed to take it quite as a matter of +course that I should be giving my directions to +her instead of Mrs. Lessing. It was as if she +took the responsible place instinctively in the +household. I climbed into the buggy, turning +the mare around, and she nodded a good-bye +to me. My last glimpse, as I left the house, was +of her slim bare-headed figure, wistful in its +very air of self-reliance, standing there in the +sunshine with the setter by her side. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap04"></a></p> + +<h3> +IV +<br><br> +DUTCHMAN'S HILL +</h3> + +<p> +To say the thing puzzled me would be to put +it lightly enough. For the rest of the day my +thoughts kept turning to that enigmatic household +at the Bend. The most puzzling point of +all, to my mind, was why Lennox, in speaking of +the people about, had not so much as mentioned +Lessing's name. Here was a patient to whom +he had, as I surmised, been called once before at +least on the same mysterious errand as my own +that morning, with whom he was more or less +on terms of intimacy, and who must have +provided almost his sole educated companionship +in the village, and yet he had not seen fit so much +as to touch upon Lessing's existence in my talk +with him. Considering the words with which +my own advent had been that morning greeted, +I would have given much to be able to corner +Lennox just then for ten minutes' conversation. +</p> + +<p> +I had heard nothing from him so far, and the +following morning, on the chance of there being +a letter, I drove down to the village after +breakfast. As I entered the post office Miss Lessing +was just coming out. She had a brown-paper +parcel—an obvious butcher's parcel—in her +hand, together with a couple of mail packets, +and as I stood aside to let her pass she stopped +to exchange a few words with me. Her brother +was better, she said; he looked forward to seeing +me that afternoon. We chatted a moment, and +when she turned to go I said naturally: +</p> + +<p> +"You might let me give you a lift up the road. +I'm going straight back." +</p> + +<p> +She smiled. "I'm used to walking, thanks all +the same! Besides, there's a short cut through +the woods I've found. It takes off nearly half +the distance." +</p> + +<p> +"You don't mind the woods alone?" +</p> + +<p> +"I've got the dog with me." +</p> + +<p> +I watched her straight slim little figure up +the street, the dog following at her heels, and +turned into the post office. The clerk had grown +familiar during our daily intercourse. He handed +me two letters with a ready grin—Lennox's +handwriting was not among them—then leaned +his elbows on the shabby counter and spat +reflectively into the space below. +</p> + +<p> +"Mr. Lessing had another attack, ain't he?" +</p> + +<p> +"What do you mean," I said curtly. +</p> + +<p> +"I heer'd you was called over thar, yesterday. +Reckon you'll have enough to do if you take on +with all the crazy folks round here." +</p> + +<p> +I looked at him hard. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I ain't got nothing special against +Mr. Lessing. He's a pleasant-spoken chap, all I've +seen of him. On'y when a man gits to meddlin' +with things it ain't no person's business to +meddle with he's liable to git called crazy—ef not +worse. I ain't holdin' with what people say +when they get to talkin'—no sir! I got enough +to do tendin' my own business. But there's +plenty won't go near Mr. Lessing's place after +dark nor no other time, an' if you was to listen +to them I reckon they got their reasons. They +say his wife's as crazy as he is. Seems when he +ain't traipsin' round the woods all hours o' the +night he's shut up there in that stoodio place +doin' his vivisectin'——" +</p> + +<p> +"<i>What?</i>" +</p> + +<p> +I laughed in spite of myself. Mr. Johnson +looked sulky. +</p> + +<p> +"Ain't that what they call it? I ain't no doctor." +</p> + +<p> +"Mr. Lessing happens to be a student of +chemistry, not a medical student, so if anyone's +been trying to get round you with bogy +tales they're talking nonsense. I'm surprised +at a man of your education, Mr. Johnson, +listening to such absurdities!" +</p> + +<p> +"Then what does he shut himself up for, +with a lamp you can see two miles off, unless +he's up to suthin' he don't want folks to know?" +</p> + +<p> +"Probably because he doesn't want a pack of +ignoramuses meddling with his affairs." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, that's what they say, and there's folks +as believes it," he said sullenly. "An' as fur +his walkin' in the woods, I ain't tellin' you +anything but what's so. He was seen the same night +as Jake Menning got killed goin' down Dutchman's +Hill. It was Jakey's half-brother as seen +him, an' Aaron ain't one to be tellin' lies. No, +sir! An' if Doctor Lennox was here now he +would tell you the same, for he was called out +to see a sick child at the Bend that same night +and it was him as found Jake Menning there the +next mornin'." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you know you're saying things you might +get into trouble over?" I asked sternly. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I ain't sayin' he had no hand in it," he +returned promptly. "Everyone knows Jakey +got killed through bein' too drunk to look whar +he was goin'!" +</p> + +<p> +I pushed a quarter over to him. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, give me some stamps, Mr. Johnson. +If you take my advice you won't pay quite so +much attention to idle gossip." +</p> + +<p> +I drove home, thinking. Lennox, or someone, +had been chattering; that was clear. How far +I had no means at present of knowing, for I was +not going to pursue any further conversation +with Johnson, ready as he was. A doctor who +gives himself to gossip is no better than an old +hen. I felt a sharp contempt for Lennox that +overrode whatever interest I might once have +had for him. If he had got himself into any +tangle down here he deserved it thoroughly. +</p> + +<p> +A light covered wagon, such as hucksters use, +was outside the gate when I got back, and a man, +who had evidently been bargaining with Mrs. Searle +at the back door, came round and climbed +into it. I had to pull the mare up to one side +to give him room to drive off, and as I waited +I happened to notice him rather closely, the more +so as he gave me a civil but obvious scrutiny +himself as he climbed over the wagon-wheel. +He was a man of about forty, in a tightly +buttoned coat of greasy black oilskin and a peaked +cap, which might have belonged earlier in its +career to a seafaring man, pulled down over his +forehead. His face, with unpleasantly close-set +eyes, was scarred by smallpox, and apart from +the repugnance which this disfigurement always +inspires more or less, I think I have seldom seen +a countenance which impressed me more +disagreeably. He was a man whom I would have +ordered off my own premises anywhere at first +sight, and I replied with a curt nod to his +over-subservient greeting. +</p> + +<p> +I left the mare in the yard and went into the +parlor. Mrs. Searle had evidently been +interrupted in her morning tidying, and she came +back, duster in hand, as I stood there. I had +enough experience to know her for a woman who +did not give herself to gossip, though she +probably knew all that was afoot, by the curious +intuitive sense so highly developed in all women +of her class. With her I would be perfectly safe +in any inquiries I chose to make. +</p> + +<p> +She apologized for her intrusion and set about +completing her tour of the furniture, with +noiseless briskness. +</p> + +<p> +"I see you've been down to the village, sir," +she said after a moment. "I was going to ask +whether you'd order some more coal up for +tomorrow, from Harkness's. It's most finished." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll send Pete this afternoon. He can walk +in. By the way, Mrs. Searle, what was this +story about Jake Menning? I just heard +something of it in the village today." +</p> + +<p> +"Jake Menning..." She paused in her +dusting, setting back a vase carefully on the +mantelshelf. "I suppose you'd have heard of +it, sir. He was killed last March, goin' down +Dutchman's Hill. There isn't much water now, +but it's generally deep there, long after the +spring rains. Some did say it was done a-purpose, +but the most of 'em thinks he jest had a fit +an' fell in. Doctor Lennox found him, about +six o'clock in the mornin', driving back from a +night call. He was lyin' jest at the foot of the +hollow, where them planks begin, with his face +in the water. It wasn't deep enough to drown +anyone ordinarily, an' that's why they thought +it was a seizure. +</p> + +<p> +"There was two half-brothers, Jake an' Aaron, +both livin' over near the Bend. Aaron's took +the whole business over now. Jake was always +kind o' queer; they called him crazy sometimes, +round the village. They was as like as two peas, +which was queer, seein' they was on'y half +related, so to speak. Down to the smallpox scars +an' all. They'd both took the smallpox, but +Jake took it worse, and they said that was what +affected his brain some. You couldn't tell 'em +apart, on'y for Aaron's stutterin'. +</p> + +<p> +"Aaron was the best of the two. He's a good +chapel member, and he's done a lot better in +the business since Jakey's out of it. I heard +they used to quarrel a lot in Jake's lifetime. +Aaron's savin', and a bit close with his money +too, and I recon he kep' Jake under some. +He was an awful ill-lookin' man, Jake Menning—not +that I like to say wrong of the dead, but +I know a bad-lookin' man when I see one, an' +Jake was that, for all his craziness. There +weren't anyone liked him much, so they said he +was harmless as a child, and right smart in +business, an' now they ain't content with his being +dead but they must get to startin' nonsense about +his walking—-excuse me mentionin' any such silly +talk to you, sir!" +</p> + +<p> +"Walking?" I stared. +</p> + +<p> +"What they call it, sir," she explained +apologetically. "You see," she went on, taking up +her duster again, "Dutchman's Hill always did +have a bad name, account of a pedlar bein' +drowned there years ago, and now with this +other business they try to make out the place is +haunted again.. They don't seem to know +rightly whether it's Crazy Jake or the pedlar +I told you of, but there's quite a lot of folks +now won't go nigh the place after dark, no +more'n if it had the plague." +</p> + +<p> +"So that's what all this nonsense has been +about!" I said, a light beginning to dawn on me. +"I suppose Pete is right in it all?" +</p> + +<p> +"Pete is like all the niggers, sir. They ain't +happy unless they've got some sort of a ha'nt +to tell about. Not that the other folks here is +any better, an' I will say that of 'em. I never +met such a gossipin' set in my life till I come +here!" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Searle herself was originally from New +England, and eight years' residence here had not +altered her original opinion of the people. For +this reason, if for none other, I knew that she +kept herself very sternly aloof from the minor +scandal-making of the place. +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose there was an inquest on this man?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, yes, sir. They brought it in accidental +causes, an' Doctor Lennox seemed to think the +man died of heart-failure, an' he must have been +dead before he fell in. Anyway it wasn't +drownin', simple. I don't know. It was Aaron had +heart-weakness in the family, as I heard, so it +was queer Jake bein' the one took off that way!" +</p> + +<p> +I rose. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I suppose the people here have precious +little to gossip about, and they like to make +a mystery of whatever does happen!" +</p> + +<p> +"That's about as I take it, sir." She moved +toward the door. "An' now I think, it was funny +your asking me about Jake Menning, just this +moment. That was Aaron as came round to the +back door a while ago, as you drove up. He +wanted to know if we'd like any chickens, so I +took one for Sunday, seen' he only gets round +once a fortnight now he has the whole business +to attend to. I don't know whether it's thinkin' +over it, but it seems to me he's getting to +look more like Jakey every day. If it wer'n't +for his stutterin' I could take him for a ghost +myself!" +</p> + +<p> +So that was Aaron Menning. Well, he might +be a good chapel member, but he had a face that +would hang him if my impressions went for +anything. All the same, this put me no nearer to +clearing up the mystery at the Bend, which was +what interested me at the moment. Jake Menning +and the alleged ghost of Dutchman's Hill +were ordinary enough features in a village +drama, but they could have no direct bearing +on the problem that occupied my mind. +</p> + +<p> +After lunch I told Peter to put the mare in. +He lingered about the buggy when I came out, +making unnecessary adjustments to the harness. +I could see he was anxious to learn the outcome +of yesterday's visit, and where I was going now. +</p> + +<p> +"Is yoh gwine by de village, doctah?" he +asked finally, with the air of one with a +commission to request. +</p> + +<p> +"No, I'm going to the Bend. There is no +need for you to drive me," I added as I took the +reins up. +</p> + +<p> +I could have sworn the old sinner looked relieved +as he went back to the coach-house. When +I reached the bungalow I found Lessing himself +on the porch. As he rose to greet me I saw that +he was taller than I had thought; there was a +certain wiry strength about him when he stood +upright. What amazed me was the man's +extraordinary endurance and resiliency; his face +showed scarcely a sign of the exhaustion of +yesterday. He was dressed in corduroy trousers +and a soft silk shirt, under which the outline of +the bandaging was visible as he moved. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, how are you?" I asked as we shook hands. +</p> + +<p> +"All right. Come into the house—or shall +we stay here?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'll have a look at you first." I followed +him into the room. "A bit stiff?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing much." +</p> + +<p> +"Sleep?" +</p> + +<p> +"Like a log." +</p> + +<p> +I need hardly have asked him. He stripped +up his shirt and I made a brief readjustment +of the dressings. The wounds were going on all +right. He must have had a magnificent +constitution despite his slightness of build. We +sat down on the divan, and Lessing produced a +box of cigarettes. +</p> + +<p> +There was a small wooden table near the window, +littered with test-tubes and odds and ends, +and I nodded toward it. +</p> + +<p> +"Been busy?" +</p> + +<p> +"I was just working out something. I have +a sort of laboratory fitted outside, though. I +had it built." +</p> + +<p> +"That sort of studio place?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's just like a workshop—where I muddle +occasionally! I'll show you sometime, if you +like." +</p> + +<p> +"I should be delighted." +</p> + +<p> +"My experiments have, unfortunately, given +rather a bad name to the place. They had a +bad effect on old Lennox, too. I believe I was +too progressive for him. You wouldn't expect +that from a medical man, would you? Did you +know Lennox very well?" +</p> + +<p> +He knocked the ash off his cigarette, waiting +for my reply. If he was guarded, so was I. +</p> + +<p> +"I knew him at the University, a good while +ago. Since then I had not seen him till the +other day." +</p> + +<p> +"He's a queer old bird! I used to tell him he +made the ideal country practitioner. It made +him mad because it was so exactly true. We +used to disagree frightfully, you know. It's the +only relaxation in a place like this. I shall miss +Lennox...." +</p> + +<p> +It struck me he was trying, in a casual way, +to find out how far Lennox had spoken of him to +me, and whether we had been at any time since +his departure in correspondence. +</p> + +<p> +"Lennox has quaint theories," he went on, leaning +back against the cushions. "One of them is +that nothing exists outside the pharmacopÅ“ia +and Burton's 'North American Fauna.' We used +to argue it at great length. I don't believe he's +convinced yet." +</p> + +<p> +"He was never an easy man to convince." +</p> + +<p> +"So? It's habit that survives. How do you +like it down here, by the way?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I'm putting in a good time," I smiled. +"I fish a little, tramp a little. There ought to +be good shooting in these woods by and by." +</p> + +<p> +"They are interesting," said Lessing drily. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you been here long?" I asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Over a year." He rose and went into the +kitchen, whence he returned a moment later, +saying: "I thought I heard my wife there. We +might as well have some tea." +</p> + +<p> +It was Miss Lessing who brought the tea in, +a few minutes later. She greeted me pleasantly, +setting the tray down on the little table I pulled +forward for her. +</p> + +<p> +"Kate is lying down for a while," she said +to her brother. "She has a headache. Do you +take sugar, Doctor Haverill?" +</p> + +<p> +I sat chatting there for nearly an hour. Lessing +seemed at all events disposed to be friendly. +All the while I was trying to reconcile this man +who sat talking boyishly on trivial subjects with +the outstretched figure I had seen twenty-four +hours ago. If I had felt any resentment for his +treatment of me yesterday it would have +vanished utterly, and his complete absence of +restraint now showed me, if I had needed it, how +all memory of that mood had changed with his +physical condition. +</p> + +<p> +When I rose to go it was under promise to +dine with them the following week. I fancied +that Miss Lessing glanced hesitatingly at her +brother before she seconded his invitation. It +might have been only fancy; she was certainly +cordial enough as we shook hands. +</p> + +<p> +"Next Thursday, then," Lessing called after +me from the doorway. I drove home no less +mystified than before. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap05"></a></p> + +<h3> +V +<br><br> +THE DEAD CYCLIST +</h3> + +<p> +Lennox sent me a note from Queenstown. I +wondered, reading the brief cheerful account of +his crossing, if he guessed how much I would +give to have him cornered for a half-hour's +interview. That he could throw considerable +light on the puzzle I did not doubt, any more +than that he had promptly put the ocean between +us with a view to avoiding the very question +I wanted to put to him. Anyway he was +securely out of reach, and there was no use in +wasting speculation. +</p> + +<p> +My motor-cycle had arrived some time ago, +but up to now I had not made use of it. It was +housed in the carriage-shed, to Peter's great +curiosity. Once I had caught him meddling with +it surreptitiously, and my lecture, garnished with +many lies as to what would happen to him if +he pursued investigations, wrought the desired +effect on his superstitious mind. Devils offered +to Peter the most natural explanation for +anything he failed to understand. Having a free +morning, it occurred to me to put the engine in +order, and Peter, cleaning harness nearby, +watched my proceedings with distrustful curiosity. +</p> + +<p> +"Is yoh gwine <i>ride</i> dat 'ar thing, doctah?" +he asked me. +</p> + +<p> +"Sure!" I stood up, wiping my grimed hands +on a piece of cotton waste. "Don't you think +it's a likely thing to scare the ha'nts with, Pete?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yoh talk er de ha'nts, doctah, 'cause yoh +ain' done <i>seen</i> 'em. When yoh's done seen 'em, +doctah, I raikon yose gwine talk er suthin' eke." +</p> + +<p> +"If I meet one on this, Pete, it'll give him +such fits he won't do any han'ting for a week. +Give me that monkey-wrench." +</p> + +<p> +He eyed me gloomily. +</p> + +<p> +"Dat ar thing's got a debbil in 'um sure, an' +yoh ain' git no better er one debbil by mixin' +'um up wid anuffer—no, <i>sah</i>!" +</p> + +<p> +"Peter," I said, "you are too conservative." +</p> + +<p> +"I d'know dat. I d'know dat! De debbil's +de dibbil, an' dar ain' no good yet come er mixin' +up wid him. 'Tain' in de Bible nor 'tain' in +nature, an' I ain' holdin' wid no such dealin's." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Pete, I'm going to back my devil +against your rabbit's foot, anyhow." +</p> + +<p> +Pete looked suspicious. +</p> + +<p> +"Who's been talkin' 'bout rabbit's foots, doctah?" +</p> + +<p> +"No one. Turn your pockets out, Pete!" +</p> + +<p> +His hand clapped involuntarily to the side of +his trousers. +</p> + +<p> +"I got ter put dat harness away, an' I ain' +got the time t' be hindered in! Sholy to Gawd, +doctah, yoh ain' s'pose <i>I</i> carry no trash like +that!" +</p> + +<p> +He straightened himself with dignity, hanging +the harness up on its pegs. I finished my +job and went into the surgery. I had written +to the city for the drug I wanted for Lessing. +It arrived yesterday, and I had made up the +powders. They were lying on the desk with a +rubber band about them, and the packet caught +my eye as I came in. I called to Pete. +</p> + +<p> +"I want you to take a prescription over to +Mr. Lessing," I said. "You can take the +buckboard and bring back that sack of feed from +Sliefer's at the same time." +</p> + +<p> +I held the packet out to him. He eyed first +it, then me. +</p> + +<p> +"Well?" I said impatiently. +</p> + +<p> +"I'se gwine, I'se gwine. I was thinkin' on'y +dis mawnin' how dat feed done oughter be +fetched. Yessir, I was sayin' dat out in de +car'ge-house. It done oughter be fetched <i>today</i>." +</p> + +<p> +"It'll be right on your road after you leave +Mr. Lessing's." +</p> + +<p> +"Yessir, dat so! On'y dat packet, doctah +... I was jest considerin' dat packet. Ef I +was to put dat packet in de buckboard longer +de feed sack I'd be right scared 'er losing it. +It don't seem to me, doctah, dat 'ar packet gwine +t' be very safe dat way." +</p> + +<p> +"But you've got a pocket, you old idiot!" +</p> + +<p> +"Yessir, I done got pockets. I was on'y jest +a-studyin', doctah. I don' recommend pockets, +not when a pusson's got a commission to 'tend to. +When a pusson puts suthin' in his pocket, it +happens sometime dat a pusson's gwine <i>forget</i> +it." +</p> + +<p> +"If it happens to you," I assured him, "I'll +find a way of operating on your memory, so +you'd better be careful!" +</p> + +<p> +He took the packet without more ado and +went off to get the buckboard ready. It was too +fine a day to waste about the house, and I had it +in mind to take the cycle out for a spin. Telling +Mrs. Searle I would probably be away for lunch, +I got into my cycling suit and set off. +</p> + +<p> +I followed the road for some distance past the +Bend, and then branched off to the right, joining +the Pike. The machine was in good running +order, and I did some twenty miles before I +slowed up finally at a little village with the hope +of getting something to eat. +</p> + +<p> +There was the usual hotel and saloon combined, +with its array of spruce bushes in tubs +before the entrance. I leaned my cycle against +the porch and went in to interview the landlord +about a meal. +</p> + +<p> +Dinner was by luck just ready. I cleaned off +some of the grime of my ride and wandered into +the commercial room, which was garnished with +horsehair furniture, a mildewed engraving of +Washington, and two plates of sticky fly-paper, +buzzing and noxious, set out on the soiled +tablecloth. There was one other midday guest, a +young man in a gray suit who sat watching the +struggles of the latest addition to the fly-paper +colony while he waited for dinner. I placed him +immediately as a newspaper man, and the first +dozen words we exchanged, as I took my place +opposite to him at the table, proved me right. +He had been sent down on the trial of one of +those dull and elusive scandals which serve to +lighten the papers during the dead season, and +had to put in two hours' waiting for his train +back to the city. +</p> + +<p> +He had a considerable fund of anecdote which +needed only the barest encouragement to set +going, and he transferred his interest from the +fly-paper to myself with complimentary promptitude. +He had a trick of raising his voice a full +three tones at the beginning of each sentence, +and as his dissertations were lengthy I found +myself speculating at to what new and rasping +height his voice might next reach. +</p> + +<p> +There was a week-old copy of a local paper +lying on the table, and in a pause of the meal +he pushed it over to me. +</p> + +<p> +"There's a thing that might interest you, +being a cyclist," he said. "What do you make of +that kind of an accident?" +</p> + +<p> +I read the paragraph he pointed out. It was +the account of an inquest held on the body of a +young man identified as one George Powell, +salesman in a Philadelphia dry-goods store. He +had been found on a stretch of road a few miles +beyond Coopersville by a farmer taking an early +load of milk to the Coopersville creamery. The +handle-bars and front part of his wheel, near by, +were damaged, and the broken lamp was picked +up a few yards further on. The man was dead, +but the curious part, which had evidently struck +my acquaintance also, was that there were no +injuries found on the body except a single diagonal +scratch across the face, which was of sufficient +depth to have destroyed one eye and to lay +the entire cheek open. This in itself had not +produced death, and the coroner's autopsy had +revealed no symptom of concussion. The medical +officer's verdict had been death from heart +failure. +</p> + +<p> +The injuries suggested attack, but there had +been no robbery, and though the man's clothing +was torn his pockets were apparently untouched. +They contained thirty-five dollars in notes, in +a pocket-book, some small change, and the +papers that had led to his identification. +</p> + +<p> +"Well?" said my acquaintance. +</p> + +<p> +"It looks queer." +</p> + +<p> +He laid a finger on the paragraph. +</p> + +<p> +"You see the body was picked up fifteen +yards from the edge of the wood. If anyone +had laid for him, they'd have laid right in the +woods, where there was cover. But whatever +hit him, it hit him before he reached there." +</p> + +<p> +"He might have run into something." +</p> + +<p> +"As what?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know." And there struck me +instantly the thought that my companion put into +words. "If you run into anything on a bicycle, +at full speed, it doesn't generally happen that +the handle-bars get the worst injury. You see +that the front wheel was not much broken. And +he was riding toward the woods, and it's going +to take a pretty phenomenal shock to throw a +man and his bicycle fifteen yards backwards. +I'll tell you another thing. I happen to know +that stretch of road, because I spent part of last +summer near there, with some people. It's a +level stretch, cleared both sides, and there isn't +anything larger than a stone to run into." +</p> + +<p> +I waited, wondering what he was driving at. +He chose a toothpick from the holder and began +to employ it, leisurely. +</p> + +<p> +"You'd reckon those things would strike the +jury, wouldn't you? But they're so dam' simple +down here that they're content to come up +against facts like that, and they say: Well, +here's a man got killed and we don't know what +hit him. Guess we'll let it go at misadventure +and go get a drink!' That's their mental attitude, +and there isn't anything going to shake +them out of it." +</p> + +<p> +"What's your theory?" I asked. +</p> + +<p> +He revolved the toothpick meditatively. +</p> + +<p> +"If I knew, I guess I'd be up against a story +that would make every newspaper in the country +sit up. There's something queer there, and I'll +tell you why, and you'll see just how enterprising +these country juries are. Last April"—he +raised his voice again, giving the toothpick an +extra twirl in emphasis—"precisely the same +thing happened to another man, not twelve miles +from where this was. He was killed under much +about the same circumstances, and the jury then +returned the same old verdict, with a caution +about the dangers of scorching. I happen to +know, because I was down there on some story +the time the thing occurred. I saw the man." He +paused, and without knowing why I felt my +pulses quicken suddenly in anticipation. "He +had marks on his body that a wild-cat couldn't +have made! He was picked up at the side of the +path, among some stiff under-brush, so of course +they said the fall did it. I tell you he was ripped, +like I've seen a dog's face ripped by a badger. +I've seen murder cases and I've seen accidents, +but I've never seen the precise accident that +would leave that kind of marks." +</p> + +<p> +"You think it was murder?" +</p> + +<p> +"The man wasn't murdered. He hit his head +against a stone and died of concussion that time, +right enough. But it was near enough to murder, +if you assume an assailant who'd strap two-inch +steel claws on to his hands." He laughed. +"It's an original outfit! But that's what I'm +asking <i>you</i>? What's the animal that goes round +in these woods that's strong enough to wreck +the steel tubing of a bicycle, that attacks with +its claws and not with its teeth, and that's quick +enough to knock a man down without the chance +of a struggle?" +</p> + +<p> +"There were no traces?" +</p> + +<p> +"None. Not a single footprint." +</p> + +<p> +All the while he spoke there had been before +my mind the picture of Lessing—Lessing with +those inexplicable scratches on his chest. +Whatever had attacked these two had attacked +Lessing also; that I would swear to. I was +conscious that the young man was watching me +rather closely. +</p> + +<p> +"Heard something of this before, have you?" +</p> + +<p> +"No. It interests me. But I think you're +on a wrong tack." +</p> + +<p> +"How?" +</p> + +<p> +"Man alive, you don't suppose there could +conceivably be any animal of that kind loose in +the country without people knowing it! Someone +would have seen it." +</p> + +<p> +"I guess two people did see it," he suggested. +</p> + +<p> +"If anything escaped from a menagerie there'd +be a hue and cry raised. The woods around here +couldn't give cover to any animal of that size +and ferocity for three months without some track +of it being found." +</p> + +<p> +He said: "How about the murders in the Rue +Morgue?" +</p> + +<p> +"Those scratches weren't made by a monkey!" +</p> + +<p> +I was unguarded. He looked up sharply. +</p> + +<p> +"You didn't see them." +</p> + +<p> +"You have described them," I reminded him. +"Besides, an ape's instinct is to strangle." +</p> + +<p> +"Not necessarily." +</p> + +<p> +"Put the first down as a murder. The second +might not have had any connection. There is +nearly three months between. The medical +officer suggested himself that the injuries might +have been caused by falling on the broken bicycle +framework." +</p> + +<p> +"Medical officers aren't infallible. They've +got to say something." +</p> + +<p> +I laughed. "Well, stick to your escaped simian +theory! If a third case turns up we'll see who's right." +</p> + +<p> +I rose, paid my bill and went out, leaving +him, I have no doubt, with the impression that +I was a particularly hidebound idiot. But I +had my own reasons for making no further +contribution to his data. I would see this thing +through without any assistance from a too +enterprising press. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap06"></a></p> + +<h3> +VI +<br><br> +A BOYCOTTED HOUSEHOLD +</h3> + +<p> +Thursday evening found me at the Lessing's +bungalow. Mrs. Lessing was in evidence this +time, in a soft black gown that accentuated the +pallor of her face. The evening did not correct +my first impressions of her. She shook hands +limply, contributed a few remarks about the +weather, and then subsided on the couch in +silence. Dinner was laid on a small round table +near the window, and Mary Lessing came in +from the kitchen with uprolled sleeves and a big +apron tied about her. +</p> + +<p> +"We do our own chores here, Doctor Haverill," +she said. "Do you want to make yourself +useful?" +</p> + +<p> +I rose promptly. Lessing had not yet +appeared and my <i>tête-à -tête</i> with his wife was +not exhilarating. I followed her out into the +kitchen, where she gave me a can-opener and a +box of sardines. +</p> + +<p> +"Turn those out for me, please. And if you +have any hygienic aversion to canned goods, +smother it. We live on them here." +</p> + +<p> +"You find it far from the village?" +</p> + +<p> +She smiled, quizzically. "A good way. Besides, +the tradespeople here aren't exactly genial. +So we subsist on boxes from the city. It gives +you all the real pleasure of a desert island +without the risks. Put them on that plate, will +you? You see, by the time the box arrives and +gets hauled up from the station we've generally +forgotten what we ordered, so there's all the +excitement of discovery as well. This time it was +olives. Do you realize the joy of unexpected +olives in the wilderness?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm going to." +</p> + +<p> +"That's the right spirit! Living in the country +teaches one a becoming humility. There are +more things to open. Perhaps it was a mistake +to ask you out here, but in any case I could +hardly have palmed off these peaches as grown in +our own garden, because we haven't got one." +</p> + +<p> +She was standing at the table, drying crisp +salad on a white cloth. The position showed me +only her profile, with a little wave of bronze +hair escaping near one ear. "Do you think +gardening is worth the trouble?" +</p> + +<p> +"When things like this grow in every department +store? Perhaps not. Good heavens, Doctor +Haverhill, but you must <i>wash</i> that +can-opener! Give it to me!" +</p> + +<p> +I gazed at the jagged gash already achieved +in the peach-can. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't tell anyone and they won't taste it!" +</p> + +<p> +"I thought bachelors knew how to do everything." +</p> + +<p> +"Sardines and peaches go excellently together," +I maintained. "They call it <i>salade de +fruits poissonnés</i>." +</p> + +<p> +Lessing lounged in. +</p> + +<p> +"I admire the way Mary sets you to work," +he said. "She has a talent for being industrious +by proxy. Here——" He pulled a parcel out +of his pocket "I've brought your cheese, but +I won't answer for the state of it." +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lessing cast a quick glance at me. +"Where——?" +</p> + +<p> +"<i>Not</i> at Johnson's. I don't know if my sister +has explained to you, Doctor Haverhill, that we +are a boycotted household? We find it quite +amusing. It leads to a practice of expedience +which is excellent training for the young. Mary +has learned to make quite creditable bread +already." +</p> + +<p> +"Out of the sawdust they pack the canned +goods in," put in his sister promptly. "Carry +that dish in without spilling it, Dick, and don't +talk nonsense!" +</p> + +<p> +We sat down to one of the most cheerful +meals four young people have ever enjoyed. I +would except Mrs. Lessing, but that even her +limp and monosyllabic presence failed to dampen +our spirits. Afterwards Lessing made Turkish +coffee over a spirit lamp while the two girls +cleared the table, refusing my assistance +high-handedly. +</p> + +<p> +I moved about the room in the familiarity +which our informal meal had fostered, looking +at the knick-knacks, the row of books on the +shelves. They were a pretty varied collection, +poetry, some modern French scientific books and +novels, and one of the most complete collections +of detective literature I have ever encountered, +side by side with a few text-books on chemistry +and some volumes on occultism and black magic, +some familiar to me by title, others unknown. +There was a monthly magazine lying near which +I recognized as occupying itself largely with the +subject of psychic phenomena, and turning it +over I noticed Lessing's name in the index. +</p> + +<p> +"You write?" I asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Once in a blue moon!" He looked up from +a critical stage in his coffee-making. "Does +that sort of thing interest you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Indifferently—if it happens to be genuine." +</p> + +<p> +"There's so little genuine." He withdrew the +coffee deftly, blowing out the lamp, and stood +the little copper pot aside. "That's the worst +of it. One endures hours of boredom for no +result." +</p> + +<p> +"You belong to the P.R.S.?" +</p> + +<p> +"A most respectable and unexciting body." He +smiled. "I would give in my demission, +only they afford me a patient hearing from time +to time. Besides, it gives me the opportunity +of wrangling with someone, and contention is +the spice of life, as I was saying. It was with +that truism that I strove to console Lennox, +when I bored him to extinction." +</p> + +<p> +Involuntarily my ears pricked. +</p> + +<p> +"Was that often?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, I can't say the boredom predominated, +in the long run." He surveyed his coffee with +the air of an artist, his boyish head on one side. +</p> + +<p> +"Where are those cups, Mary?" +</p> + +<p> +"Your system of boredom seemed to have a +remarkable effect on Lennox, anyway," slipped +from me involuntarily. +</p> + +<p> +Lessing laughed. "Oh, that was when the +boredom ended! He stood it nobly to a point." He +turned toward me. "Would you like to see +what frightened Lennox, sometime?" +</p> + +<p> +Before I could answer Mary Lessing came in +with the coffee-cups, and the subject was +dropped. +</p> + +<p> +It was ten o'clock when I rose to leave, my +departure hastened by a suspicion that Mrs. Lessing +had glanced several times of purpose at the +clock. They all came out on the porch to say +good night, and at the last moment Lessing +added: "I'll walk down the hill with you." +</p> + +<p> +"I've got my bicycle," I said quickly, as Miss +Lessing looked up. "There's no need to bring +you out." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, it'll do me good!" +</p> + +<p> +It was a still, sultry night, with a humidity +in the air that had arisen since nightfall. We +walked leisurely, smoking, as far as the crossroad +at the top of Dutchman's Hill. The hollow +below was alive with fireflies, gleaming and +vanishing alternately in the soft dusk. There +should be a moon, but within the past hour +premonitory rainclouds had gathered, blotting it +out. Lessing glanced at the sky. +</p> + +<p> +"How long will it take you to get back?" +</p> + +<p> +"Ten minutes, more or less. It won't rain +till I get there." +</p> + +<p> +I scratched a match, stooping toward my +bicycle lantern. +</p> + +<p> +"Is it necessary to light that?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Why not? There's a bad bit of road at the +bottom there." +</p> + +<p> +"I find the glare of a lamp like that always +makes it worse. What is it, acetylene?" +</p> + +<p> +He bent over the lantern to examine it, and in +the pause the match burned down and went out. +I felt for the box again in my pocket, and as I +did so Lessing let go his hold on the bicycle. +The machine slipped by its weight, and reaching +quickly to catch it I heard the unmistakable +sound of escaping air. +</p> + +<p> +"Now you've done it!" cried Lessing boyishly. +</p> + +<p> +"Damn!" I groped for the rear tire. It was +flat. "Here's a cheerful business. How the +dickens——" +</p> + +<p> +Lessing laughed. "We'll have to walk it now! +Never mind. I know the road." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not going to bring you all that way," +I said. "I shall be all right." +</p> + +<p> +"Nonsense! I like a walk before I turn in." +</p> + +<p> +He took hold of the bicycle on one side, I +on the other, and together we set off to walk +down the hill. There is an exhilaration in +walking through woods at night, even tempered by +the necessity of pushing a heavy motor-cycle +before you, and my brief annoyance at the +accident rapidly vanished. Lessing was boyishly +high-spirited; between us we made a fairly +rowdy trip of it. We had just finished the ascent +of the other side of the hollow when he laid a +sudden hand on my arm. +</p> + +<p> +"Did you hear anything?" +</p> + +<p> +"No. Why?" +</p> + +<p> +I thought he was still joking, but his cloak +of nonsense had dropped from him abruptly. +He pulled me to the side of the road. +</p> + +<p> +"Listen!" +</p> + +<p> +There seemed nothing to listen for. I waited, +rather impatiently. Lessing threw back his +head, scanning the line of the trees that shut +us in. "There!" +</p> + +<p> +It was still in my mind that he was trying +to play some game on me. +</p> + +<p> +"It's nothing but a bird," I said. +</p> + +<p> +"Bird? You heard nothing else?" +</p> + +<p> +"No." +</p> + +<p> +"Come on," Lessing said. He seemed +abruptly sobered, and I fancied he was at pains +to quicken our pace over the remaining stretch +of road. When we sighted the glimmer of the +orchard palings I pulled up. +</p> + +<p> +"Come on into the house and have a drink," +I said. +</p> + +<p> +"No, thanks. I must get back. By the way, +do you carry a revolver?" +</p> + +<p> +"What on earth for?" +</p> + +<p> +"I only wondered. I should advise you to, +around here." His hand slipped down to his +pocket, and I heard a soft click. +</p> + +<p> +"What are you going to do?" +</p> + +<p> +"Have a pot at the birds, going back." He +smiled. "Good night. Look in sometime +during the week." +</p> + +<p> +And he went off without further delay, +whistling softly. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap07"></a></p> + +<h3> +VII +<br><br> +WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LABORATORY +</h3> + +<p> +Instead, it was Lessing who came a day or two +later to see me. He lounged in one evening +when I was sitting smoking on the porch, after +supper, and my first advice of his presence was +the clatter of a zinc pail which Pete let fall +promptly in the side yard. When Lessing +rounded the corner of the porch he was grinning. +</p> + +<p> +"Your nigger must have a bad conscience," +he said. "I never saw anyone so afraid of the +devil in all my life!" +</p> + +<p> +I made a sound of annoyance. Evidently I +had not finished with Pete yet. "He's a born +idiot!" I said. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not so sure," Lessing returned. "He +has a very practical regard for his own skin. +I appreciate that." +</p> + +<p> +"You ought to." +</p> + +<p> +He gave me one of those habitual quick looks, +his head on one side. +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks! Do you find the mosquitoes bad +around here? I got all bitten up coming past +Dutchman's Hollow." +</p> + +<p> +I took the hint. +</p> + +<p> +"We'll sit indoors," I said. "It's pretty cool +in the surgery." +</p> + +<p> +He followed me into the room, glancing +curiously about him. +</p> + +<p> +"So this is where old Lennox hung out ... the +place has a look of him. What's that, +butterflies? He always had a weakness for things +he could stick a pin into and label nicely!" +</p> + +<p> +"Have you never been here before?" +</p> + +<p> +"Never. He used to come to my place. I +have an idea you know, that Lennox still thinks +I'm not right in the head." +</p> + +<p> +I lit the student lamp on the table and set out +whisky and a couple of glasses. Lessing settled +himself in the shabby armchair opposite me, +and for a little while we smoked in silence. In +the half-shadow beyond the ring of lamplight I +could see his face, fine and clear cut against the +shabby morocco of the chair back, the dark hair +tumbled over his forehead. He was staring up +at the smoke wreaths in a curious intensity of +abstraction. +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose," he began at last, "that I owe +you some sort of an explanation, as things go." +</p> + +<p> +I made a little gesture of indifference. I was +beginning to know my man. If it pleased him +to work upon my curiosity I was prepared to +give him the least possible satisfaction. +</p> + +<p> +"You offered me one," I corrected him. "I +believe we decided to let it go at that." +</p> + +<p> +He turned his gaze upon me, with a rather +charming impertinence. +</p> + +<p> +"That was when I took you for a fool. As I +admit the error you ought to forgive my +expression of it. The truth is..." He paused so +long that I reached for a fresh cigarette to break +the interval. "I'll be damned if I know what +the truth is myself!" He finished almost +violently. "I can give you facts—all you want. +When it comes to putting things together.... +Do you know how maddening it is to have your +hand on a thing—actually on it—and feel it all +the while slipping through your fingers?" +</p> + +<p> +He threw his cigarette away. "Let's drop all +this nonsense, anyway. I came over here tonight +to have a talk with you. I tell you frankly, +because you're about the only sane man I'm +likely to cross down here. I tried Lennox once, +and Lennox thought I was batty, and there the +matter ended. But I've got to a point now +where it's absolutely necessary, for the sake of +my own mental balance, that I should have someone +else's opinion about things. I'm going to put +certain facts before you, and you'll say what you +think about them." +</p> + +<p> +I nodded. +</p> + +<p> +"About eighteen months ago," Lessing began, +"my wife was in rather bad health. It was some +sort of nervous trouble, which I need not enter +into here, but the doctor said she needed +complete change, and that she must positively live +in the country for some time, a year or two at +least. We came down here. I bought the piece +of ground up the hill there and built the little +bungalow we are living in, with the idea of using +it later on, when her health is restored, simply as +a summer cottage. I have a fondness for +dabbling in chemistry, as I think I told you, and +shortly after we moved down here I built that +sort of outdoor study you have seen, so that +I could have a place, perfectly quiet, that I could +work in without being disturbed, and without +messing the house up with my things. I am not +a good sleeper. I sit up pretty late at night as a +rule, and it worries me to know I'm disturbing +other people in the house or that the women are +liable to drop in in their dressing-gowns at +half-past one or so, to ask whether I'm going to bed +or not. +</p> + +<p> +"My laboratory has a top light for day use, +and I have rigged up an acetylene lamp just over +my table, with a pretty strong light. One night +last fall I happened to be working rather late. +As a rule I have no difficulty whatever about +keeping awake—it's the other way about, in +fact—but along about one o'clock I began to get +rather drowsy. It might have been the fumes +of the chemicals I was using, but I'm used to +that, and anyway I don't think they could have +affected me. My interest in what I was doing +was still awake, but the other side of my mind +seemed to get drowsy at the same time. I +fought against it a long while, and then gradually +I seemed to get the consciousness of something—some +presence—in or near the room. I don't +know if you have ever attended a séance, +Haverill?" +</p> + +<p> +"Never—of any account." +</p> + +<p> +My cigarette had burned down to my fingers, +and I threw it away. I was beginning to get +keenly interested in his story. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, if you had, you would know that one +sometimes gets the sense of a materialization +some minutes before it actually takes place. I +suppose the subconscious part of one's mind acts +more quickly than the senses in receiving an +impression. Anyway that was what seemed to +happen with me. I waited. I was awake; I +want you to understand that clearly. I was as +awake as I am now. I saw everything about me, +but I seemed to see it in a quite impersonal +sort of way. +</p> + +<p> +"The top light is arranged to open in sections, +the top as well as the four sides. The side +glasses were my idea for bad weather, so that +I could always have ventilation on one side or +the other without rain driving in, as it will with +an ordinary skylight. I had the middle section +raised, and one side open as well. Presently +I was conscious that something was trying to +enter at the glass. There were no sound on the +roof itself, which is galvanized, but I could +hear plainly a sort of scraping at the window. +The inside light was so strong that I could see +nothing, but something was gradually obscuring +the opening. I had a conviction that the thing, +whatever it was, was attracted by my light, and +I made an effort, with the strange drowsiness +gaining on me, to reach the lamp and turn it out. +</p> + +<p> +"I was on my feet, reaching across the table, +with the glare of the lamp full in my eyes, when +something—I don't know what—struck me and +threw me to the ground. My hand was already +on the lamp, and I must have managed to turn +it out actually in the moment of falling. I have +a recollection of struggling for a moment there +in the darkness, of trying, with some sort of hazy +instinct, to drag myself under cover of the table, +and then I suppose I became unconscious. +</p> + +<p> +"When I came to it was broad daylight. I +was lying on the floor, near the table. There +was broken glass near me, and I seemed to +remember the crash of it before I lost consciousness. +My clothes were torn, my arms and chest +were badly scratched—I must have somehow +defended my face without knowing it—and I was +stiff all over when I moved. When I got into +the open I was seized with an intense nausea, +which lasted for several minutes. My wife and +sister are used to my being up till all hours, so +that my absence had caused no uneasiness. I +went into the house, washed myself as well as I +could, and went to sleep. It was then five o'clock, +so that I must have been nearly four hours +unconscious." +</p> + +<p> +"Did you notice any other symptoms besides +the nausea?" I interrupted. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes; an intense fatigue. It was not sleepiness. +I was tired out, as if I had been through +some great exertion." +</p> + +<p> +"Well?" I said, for I knew he had not +finished. +</p> + +<p> +"That was last October, the twenty-fourth, +to be exact. Since then the thing has happened +twice again. On each occasion I have had the +same premonitory drowsiness. I have struggled +against it, and it has mastered me at just the +critical moment. The second time when I came +to I was more badly hurt than before. My sister +happened to be up early that morning, and +there was no disguising my condition from her. +She went off for Lennox. When he came he +fixed me up and gave me a sleeping draught—which +I didn't need—and I slept nearly the +whole day. He held the opinion, which I wrested +from him later, that I had had some sort of +seizure, the result of overwork, and that I had +inflicted the injuries on myself during +unconsciousness. The rest he put down to hallucination. +He was a fool, and I told him so. Whatever +the thing was, it was no hallucination." +</p> + +<p> +"How wide was the skylight open?" +</p> + +<p> +"About eighteen inches." +</p> + +<p> +"Did you find any traces in the morning?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not a mark. The building is high, as you +know, and the sides are of perfectly plain boarding. +There is nothing that could give foothold, +except to a monkey, and the nearest tree is eight +feet off. Oh, I went over the whole ground +carefully! Whatever it was that came, it did +not reach me from the ground." +</p> + +<p> +I moved impatiently. "But what other way +could it have reached you?" +</p> + +<p> +"That's what I ask myself," said Lessing +grimly. "Do I look like a man subject to brain +trouble?" +</p> + +<p> +"No," I said. "I gave that theory up almost +immediately." +</p> + +<p> +"Then what do you make of it?" he asked +quietly. +</p> + +<p> +"Make of it!" I cried. "Good heavens, man, +do you realize that you're asking me to believe +a thing that's outside the range of all human +possibility!" +</p> + +<p> +"Human possibility! What is human possibility? +I tell you the thing as it happened, +simply." He rose and began to pace to and fro +in the room. "I'm a sane man. I'm not given +to imaginary things. And besides—you saw +yourself——" +</p> + +<p> +"Wait a moment," I said. "About this light. +Have you used the same lamp right along?" +</p> + +<p> +Lessing gave a quick look. I wondered if he +had divined my visit to the laboratory that first +morning. +</p> + +<p> +"No. I altered it after the second time. There +was an interval of over four months when nothing +happened at all. I tried to reason it all out, +and I concluded that in some way the lamp had +had to do with it. From the position of the +building, and the woods about it, the light I +was at first using could be visible only from +one certain direction. I wanted to investigate +the whole thing systematically, and with that +idea I raised the lamp and fitted a strong +reflector that would throw the light outside the +building at will, and in any direction." +</p> + +<p> +His description corresponded with the light +I had seen above the tree-tops, the night of +Pete's adventure with the turkey-buzzard. +</p> + +<p> +"You were using this the last time?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes. I had been experimenting with it, off +and on, for several weeks." +</p> + +<p> +"Have you any idea of the shape of the +thing?" I asked him. +</p> + +<p> +"So far as I could make out anything, outside +the glass, I might describe it as some kind of +dog. It seemed to be greyish.... But that +as a theory is sheer nonsense. You know that +no dog could have made the scratches you saw." +</p> + +<p> +One thing still puzzled me. +</p> + +<p> +"You say that you put the light out yourself +the first time?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes." +</p> + +<p> +"And the second?" +</p> + +<p> +"There was scarcely time to get any definite +impression," he answered evasively. "I was +struck down almost at once." +</p> + +<p> +"But you had the impression of a dog?" +</p> + +<p> +"What does it matter?" he cried, with a sudden +change of voice. "I tell you, Haverill, it +was like nothing that I can describe!" +</p> + +<p> +We sat there for some minutes in silence. I +can see now the turn of Lessing's head, the +restless movement of his fingers on the chair-arm. +It seemed incongruous that we should be sitting +here in this common-place room, amid surroundings +which spoke so emphatically of the practical +routine of life, discussing that which should have +branded us both as madmen. +</p> + +<p> +It was Lessing who broke the silence first. +</p> + +<p> +"What the good?" he said, with a short laugh. +"I've told you the whole business, and it's up to +you to make what you choose of it. The only +conclusion seems to be that we are up against +something which is, as you put it, outside the +range of experience. Good. But suppose I told +you that it wasn't outside the range of +experience—that what I saw has been seen by other +people, upon independent testimony, ten, +twenty, thirty years ago?" +</p> + +<p> +I thought of the reporter's story. But there +would be time to contribute my data presently, +after Lessing had told me all that he knew. +</p> + +<p> +"Did you ever hear of an apparition called the +Jersey Devil?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't remember it." +</p> + +<p> +"You probably wouldn't," Lessing replied. +He took a fresh cigarette from the box and lit it. +"The tale afforded some stray paragraphs in the +papers, at different times, much as the periodical +accounts of 'authentic' ghosts do, but I don't +believe anyone gave the slightest credence to it. +The Jersey Devil, to sum up all that I have been +able to glean on the subject, was a legendary +monster, reputed to have been seen, on the +evidence of several persons, at different periods +during the past fifty or sixty years. The legend goes +back, I believe, to just before the Civil War. +According to the story, its appearance gives +warning to some national trouble or calamity. It +was said to have been seen before Lincoln's +assassination, before the Spanish-American War, +and before the assassination of President +McKinley. It is described as a creature having the +body of a bat and the head of a horse—sometimes +as a quasi-human head on a winged animal +body—and it haunts certain counties of New +Jersey, chiefly Monmouth and Ocean counties, +and has also been seen as far north as Pennsylvania. +The legend goes that it is a changeling, +that is to say, a devil which took possession of +a child's body at birth and flew off in the shape +of a monster. Why it should have developed +the sort of national solicitude they claim for it +is unexplained. Of course the evidence is almost +entirely that of superstitious country people +who saw it, or thought they saw it, but the fact +remains that the evidence in every case tallies, +even after intervals of ten or twenty years. +</p> + +<p> +"We may take it that very legend has somewhere +some natural origin, however much it +may be subsequently exaggerated or distorted. +Why, if this particular legend is purely imaginary, +should it be confined to certain districts +and not to others? We are not dealing with an +apparition reputed to haunt one particular +place. It has a pretty wide range of country, +on the contrary, and its appearance has been +vouched for, almost simultaneously, in places a +great many miles apart. Why should it be seen +in one certain county and not in the adjoining +ones, where the inhabitants are probably equally +superstitious? Also it is not seen actually at the +time of trouble, when people's minds might be +most naturally influenced by superstition, but +days and sometimes weeks before the event. +That fact in itself I attach no importance to. +There is a coincidence, and people naturally +connect the two ideas. But I mention it to prove +that in no instance was the thing seen because +it was expected to be seen; its appearance in +each case was entirely without warning or +predisposition." +</p> + +<p> +I moved in my chair. +</p> + +<p> +"We've got enough to deal with as the thing +stands. If you're going to back it up with any +old wives' tales of a bat-winged horse——" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not backing it up," Lessing retorted. +"I'm only asking myself whether the experiences +that give rise to the tale of the Jersey Devil +have any connection with my own. The details +don't matter. I want to get at the origin of the +thing." +</p> + +<p> +"The two don't even tally!" I spoke sharply, +for I had still uncomfortably before my eyes +the vision of the dead cyclist on the stretch of +empty road. +</p> + +<p> +"They don't, on this point," Lessing continued +coolly. "The Jersey Devil has never, to my +knowledge, been credited with any malevolent +intent. At the worst, assuming the tales to have +some basis of truth, it has merely scared one or +two respectable farmers driving home at night. +Now the thing that attacked me, attacked me +deliberately, and with an almost extraordinary +ferocity of onslaught. I don't think there can +be any question about that. That fact alone +puts the apparition theory out of the game. We +are not dealing with any mere visual phenomena. +We are dealing with some actual existing menace. +There is just one point that can lead up to +the connection, if there is one, between the two." +</p> + +<p> +"The attraction of the lamp?" +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly. Those other people may have been +carrying a lamp or they may not. In any case, +it was probably a lantern of so slight a power +as to escape notice. I said that the thing +attacked me. But the real object of its attack +might very well have been the lamp, and not me +at all. I merely happened in each instance to +be near it." +</p> + +<p> +"But even admitting," I objected, "for the +sake of argument, that the thing was a bat, I +am not certain about bats being actually +attracted by light. They blunder into it." +</p> + +<p> +"Nor am I. As I say, I give you my only +theory. And if you assume a bat, you must +assume a bat of sufficient size to strike a man +down at one blow. The whole thing's +grotesque." He pulled out his watch, and rose +abruptly. "I must get back, or Mary will be +worrying about me. We'll talk over this another +time. If you go into the thing with me, we'll go +into it thoroughly. Only you know now why I +warned you against cycling with a strong +lantern." +</p> + +<p> +"Even to the extent of slitting my bicycle tire?" +</p> + +<p> +"Even to that extent," returned Lessing +gravely. "You see, I wasn't taking any risks." +</p> + +<p> +We shook hands, and I followed him out to +the porch. There was a clear moon, and the +road glimmered white between the black line +of the woods. As I watched the swing of his +shoulders down the path I was left, I admit, +with a definite sense of comfort at the proximity +of my own four walls. And before sleep overtook +me that night the words of the reporter +came back again and again to my mind: +</p> + +<p> +"What's the animal that goes round in these +woods that's strong enough to wreck the steel +tubing of a bicycle, that attacks with its claws +instead of its teeth, and that's quick enough to +knock a man down without the chance of a +struggle?" +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap08"></a></p> + +<h3> +VIII +<br><br> +I GO FISHING +</h3> + +<p> +The next morning was one of the most glorious +that I remember in that whole summer. I rose +early, throwing the windows wide open while I +dressed to let in the full blaze of sunshine, and +set myself, while the morning common-sense +mood was still upon me, to go over carefully in +my mind every detail of Lessing's story. +Somewhere there must be a natural explanation; it +was only the question of finding it. Among other +things it occurred to me that someone, for reasons +unknown, might be playing a series of practical +jokes upon him, but it was difficult to credit +a hoax of such malignant and serious intent, and +even assuming for a moment that Lessing was +the victim of any such plot, it did not explain +those mysterious deaths which, I felt more and +more convinced, were in some way connected +with his own experiences. +</p> + +<p> +It was at least certain that I was in for a fairly +interesting vacation. I remembered with grim +humour Lennox's assurance that I would find +the practice a quiet one; opinions might well +differ on that point. Even if Lennox came back +at the time agreed upon, I had still another six +weeks before me, and in six weeks a good deal +might happen. It would be my own fault if I +did not get some part of the mystery cleared up +before then. +</p> + +<p> +Everyone has his own private specific for +clearing the mind. Mine was fishing. After +breakfast I hunted out my tackle, asked Mrs. Searle +to pack me a lunch, and set out resolutely, +with the determination to remain in the open air +until nightfall. +</p> + +<p> +Part of the creek that lay behind the house +I had already explored, and this morning I +decided to work upstream, in the direction of the +dam. The air was clear and fresh and the woods +were alive with birds. Here and there the +sumach and poison ivy were already beginning +to turn colour, showing patches of tawny scarlet +against the green of the undergrowth. Great +painted butterflies flitted across my path, and +once, as I sat quietly on a boulder in midstream, +a kingfisher flashed near me in the broken +sunlight. +</p> + +<p> +The creek ran with a pleasant sound in its +bed, now swirling between great boulders, now +trickling over shallows of waving bronze-tinted +weed, here and there forming deep pools, outside +the stress of the current, where one might catch +a glimpse of shadowy forms moving through the +gold-brown sun-shot water. +</p> + +<p> +I made desultory casts, taking more interest +in the morning and in my surroundings than in +the actual pursuit upon which I was engaged. +Out here under the trees, with the music of the +stream in one's ear, it was impossible to feel +anything but sane and healthy. +</p> + +<p> +The silence of these woods was intense. In +pine woods there is always some stir of movement, +however faint, but these trees, giant hickories +and dense-foliaged oaks, grew so tall that +sound seemed lost amid their branches. One had +the impression of miles of far-reaching solitude. +To break the spell I began to whistle as I moved +upstream, pausing now and then to try some +likely pool, picking my way over the big rocks +that dotted the bed of the stream. The creek +was fairly deep in places; a child, losing its +footing, could be easily drowned in the strong +current. It was an ideal stream for sport, but +either the fish were wary this morning or I was +giving but scant attention to my task, for by +midday I had only one small half-pounder and +a missing hook to my score. Mrs. Searle's +luncheon packet bulged in my pocket, reminding me +presently of hunger. I was reeling in, preparatory +to settling down by some comfortable tree-trunk, +when something rushed at me with a +splash and a scurry. I was standing at the +moment on a rounded boulder near midstream, and +the impact threw me off my balance knee-deep +into the water. I turned to see the Lessings' +orange setter. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, you <i>bad</i> dog!" a voice exclaimed from +the bushes. "Whatever—— Oh, Doctor +Haverill, I am so sorry!" +</p> + +<p> +Mary Lessing stood on the bank, bareheaded, +in a short golf-skirt and uprolled sleeves. The +dog bounded back to her, and she dealt him a +summary and ineffectual cuff on the ear. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't do that!" I cried. "I was just thinking +how cool it looked in here, anyway!" +</p> + +<p> +I waded to the shore and joined her. "I can't +shake hands, because I'm wet," I added. "How +are you? I've been trying to fish, but the trout +here are entirely too sophisticated!" +</p> + +<p> +"You've frightened them for good now!" she +laughed. "What a shame! Did you catch +anything?" +</p> + +<p> +"One wretched half-pounder. I put him back +for luck." +</p> + +<p> +"A poor luck!" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not so sure," I rejoined, smiling, and she +stooped hastily down to address the setter, who +sat regarding us with lolling tongue. +</p> + +<p> +"When are you going to learn manners, you +wretched animal? You haven't even the grace +to apologize!" +</p> + +<p> +The setter put up a muddied paw and scraped +appealingly at her skirt. "You deserve to go +without biscuit for a month," she continued. +"Go away from me; don't shake yourself here!" +</p> + +<p> +The command came too late, and we both +dodged to avoid the jubilant shower of water +drops. Mary Lessing shook her skirt and sat +down. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you often explore up this way?" she asked. +</p> + +<p> +"No. It's the first time. I've no idea now +how far I've come." +</p> + +<p> +"You're about ten minutes from the dam," +she said. "Our cottage is not very far off. I +was just going back to lunch." +</p> + +<p> +"And I was just going to have mine here." I +clapped a sudden hand to my pocket; the paper +parcel was still luckily intact. "Suppose we were +to consider it a picnic? I don't know what Mrs. Searle +has put up for me, but I have a recollection +that she baked apple-cake yesterday. It's +too entirely gorgeous a day to eat indoors." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, as for that——" she began. +</p> + +<p> +"As for that, you must admit that lunch +indoors doesn't tempt you in the very least." +</p> + +<p> +"It doesn't," she said. "I came out here this +morning because——" +</p> + +<p> +She stopped rather abruptly. I was looking +about me for a likely spot in the shade, and when +I had found it, at the base of two towering +hickories, I pulled Mrs. Searle's parcel out from my +pocket. The setter watched my proceedings +with a keen interest, intent on the chance of the +moment. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm convinced," she objected, "that you +ought to go home and change your boots." +</p> + +<p> +"It's impertinent," I reminded her, untying +the pink grocery string from the parcel, "to give +medical advice to a doctor. Do you like Uneeda +biscuits? Because they seem to have occupied +an important place in my housekeeper's mind +this morning." +</p> + +<p> +We sat down on the moss beneath the hickories, +and I divided the single gigantic sandwich +with my pocket-knife. Luckily Mrs. Searle had +over-estimated my hunger. We ate healthily, +with open-air appetites, and what was left over +the setter finished at one watchful snap. +</p> + +<p> +"When does Doctor Lennox come home?" +Mary asked presently. +</p> + +<p> +"He's due in another six weeks, unless he finds +Europe too fascinating. Then I shall have to +go back and grind, I suppose. It won't be an +attractive prospect, after this holiday." +</p> + +<p> +"You have a practice in New York?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not yet. I've been <i>interne</i> up to now. I +expect it'll end in the East Side. A friend of +mine has a settlement there, and I'd like to join +him if I can. There's always plenty to do." +</p> + +<p> +"I know," she nodded. "I've seen something +of it. Do you know a man named Herrick, +there?" +</p> + +<p> +"Herrick!" I sat upright. "If you mean Jack +Herrick, that's the friend I was speaking of. +Then you——" +</p> + +<p> +"Then <i>you</i>," she corrected, "are the college +chum he was always talking about. Why, I've +known Jack Herrick ever since I used to play +dolls!" +</p> + +<p> +"Three and a half years..." I said +pensively. "The world's a small place." +</p> + +<p> +"You are rude, Doctor Haverill. It's a long +enough time, anyway." +</p> + +<p> +She was looking at the branches overhead, +and in her upturned face I caught fleetingly a +likeness that had puzzled me more than once +before. I knew now. On Herrick's mantelshelf, +in his shabby comfortable room at the settlement, +there had stood always a photograph in +a silver frame. It was the portrait of a child +of perhaps thirteen, in a gingham overall, and +with her hair braided in two short tails down her +back. Herrick had said once: "That's an old +sweetheart of mine." +</p> + +<p> +Singularly enough, the recollection did not at +this moment greatly please me. But I merely +said: +</p> + +<p> +"You wore your hair in two pig-tails." +</p> + +<p> +She brought her eyes to earth swiftly. "Who +told you?" +</p> + +<p> +"All proper little girls do at that age," I +reminded her shamelessly. +</p> + +<p> +"I see. But we were talking of John Herrick." +</p> + +<p> +"Go on." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't you think he's splendid?" she +continued, turning to me. "He's done no end of +good. And he works ... I don't believe he +ever takes a real holiday. Doctor Haverill, you +ought to get him——" +</p> + +<p> +"To come down here for a while? I will—if +it would please you." +</p> + +<p> +She looked at me so frankly that I was at once +ashamed. +</p> + +<p> +"Why, of course it would! But I don't know +why I said that. I don't suppose he'd take the +time." +</p> + +<p> +I watched a dragon-fly that was wheeling over +the stream.. She sat near me, her hands locked +about her knees. +</p> + +<p> +"My brother was at your house last night," +she said after a moment. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes." +</p> + +<p> +I could feel her eyes fixed on me, and I knew +what was in her mind. +</p> + +<p> +"He told you something?" +</p> + +<p> +"We were talking about chemistry," I said. +"It's a subject your brother is very interested +in." +</p> + +<p> +"Chemistry!" She put out her hand with a +little gesture. "Doctor Haverill, do you take +me for a child? What is the matter? You can +tell me; he has spoken to you. I want to know." +</p> + +<p> +"What do you want to know?" I said, lamely +enough. +</p> + +<p> +"The whole thing—what is happening here. +I know something threatens him, that he is in +danger, and neither he nor you will tell me what +it is." +</p> + +<p> +"How can I tell you," I fenced, "what I don't +even know myself?" +</p> + +<p> +She was quick. "Then there is something?" +</p> + +<p> +I ignored the unfinished sentence. +</p> + +<p> +"Miss Lessing, why can't you get your brother +to go away from here, for a time?" +</p> + +<p> +"I can't. I've tried. He wouldn't leave, now. +You don't know him. He's the last person in the +world to give a thing up until he's proved it down +to the ground, one way or another. Whatever's +at the bottom of this, he won't rest till he's found +it out. It's just a scientific problem to him, and +nothing else." +</p> + +<p> +"And you?" I said. +</p> + +<p> +"I?" She moved her shoulders. "What can +I think? I had hoped just now—But I only +know what he has told me, what I have seen. +If one began to think——" +</p> + +<p> +"Listen to me," I said. "You must not think! +You and I are two sane people. Look at these +wood around! I ask you, is it possible to feel +anything but sane and incredulous in a place like +this? I want you to get into your head, right +now, that there is nothing—nothing at all in this +world—that a man has any reason to be afraid +of. And there are very few things in the world, +to my belief, that cannot be explained. Has it +ever occurred to you that this whole conviction +of your brother's may be nothing more than +hallucination?" +</p> + +<p> +"But the injuries——" +</p> + +<p> +"I have known hysteric patients, before now, +inflict as severe injuries upon themselves without +consciousness or recollection. I don't say it is +your brother's case; I'm only trying to form a +possible rational explanation such as any doctor +would put forward. I have had one or two such +cases within my own experience. What I propose +to do is this, but I shall do it only with +your consent. I will write to Herrick and ask +him down here for a fortnight. It will be a new +brain to bear on the problem, and I shall ask +your brother to let us join these investigations +with him." +</p> + +<p> +"You'll do that." She put out her hand to me +impulsively. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll do it to-night. Only ... I shall have +to give Herrick a detailed account of everything +that has happened, so far as we know it, and I +can't do that without your brother's approval." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes ... I see." +</p> + +<p> +"You will excuse one question. Are they on +good terms?" +</p> + +<p> +It struck me that I had never heard Lessing +mention his name. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes." She paused doubtfully. "It's funny +you should ask that. They had a disagreement, +about two years ago. It was when my brother +first took up this ... this kind of study. +Having séances and that. Doctor Herrick wanted +him to give it up." +</p> + +<p> +I moved involuntarily. Here was a new light +on Lessing's attitude of mind, which he himself +had been at pains, it seemed to me, to touch on +very lightly. I remembered stray references of +his, the signed article I had noticed on my first +evening at the house. +</p> + +<p> +"Your brother used to attend séances often?" +</p> + +<p> +"Didn't he tell you? I don't know that I +would have mentioned it, but I don't see that it +matters. It was before I came to live with them. +He and some friends of his were very interested, +and Doctor Herrick used to join them too +sometimes. They met at a friend's studio. Doctor +Herrick was rather against it from the first, but +I know he used to be there. Of course I +understand very little about it, but ... things did +happen. I don't mean that they banged on +tambourines or rapped out the alphabet or anything +like that. It wasn't spiritualism. And then +Doctor Herrick stopped. I think he knew more +than any of them, but he said it was dangerous +and it didn't lead to anything, and he wanted my +brother to give it up altogether. Kate—that's +my sister-in-law, you know—was their medium, +and I think it was on her account. Doctor +Herrick thought it was bad for her. And then +one night something happened, I don't know just +what, but Kate got some sort of a shock. She's +very highly strung at any time, and I always +supposed something frightened her, but anyway +she was quite ill for a long time after that. She +used to get queer sort of nervous spells, and she +couldn't be left alone, and that was why I first +came to live with them, on her account. Of +course my brother gave the whole business up +then. The physician who attended her said +simply that she was in poor health, and had had +a nervous breakdown, and he told her she must +live in the country awhile till she got stronger, +but I know Doctor Herrick thought at the time +that the séances had been the cause of it. He +told my brother so." +</p> + +<p> +I listened attentively. It was news to me that +Herrick, the essential level-headed, should have +lent himself at any time to experiments of this +order. He had never mentioned the subject to +me in our many talks, and I had even gathered, +as one gathers an impression without any very +definite grounds, that he was a confirmed sceptic +on all matters of occultism. +</p> + +<p> +"You say they had a disagreement?" +</p> + +<p> +"It was exactly that," she made haste to say, +"They didn't quarrel, but I know Herrick was +very much opposed to Dick's views, and they +used to have arguments. But it didn't amount +to more than that." +</p> + +<p> +"Good!" +</p> + +<p> +She had risen to her feet, and at her movement +the setter himself lazily rose and came +towards us. +</p> + +<p> +"Then we're going to see this thing out?" +I said. +</p> + +<p> +"We'll see it out." +</p> + +<p> +We shook hands, and I fancied that her fingers +rested in mine a moment voluntarily before she +drew them away. +</p> + +<p> +"Are you coming up to see my brother +today?" she asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Presently ... I'd like to." I looked at +my watch. "I thought of taking a stroll up to +the dam, as I'm so close; I've never been there. +You say it's only a few minutes?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not more than ten, through the woods." +</p> + +<p> +"Let's walk up together," I suggested, "if you +aren't too tired." +</p> + +<p> +She assented readily, and we struck off up a +little footpath, barely traceable, that followed +the course of the stream. It was, as she had +said, a scant ten minutes before the sound of +the sluice broke on our ears, and through a +sudden clearing of the woods the dam lay before us, +a black sinister sheet of water, covered with +masses of floating weed and pond-lilies, and +darkened by the trees and underbrush that grew +closely down to its edge. An old scow, long past +use and sunken low in the water, lay pad-locked +to a slimy stump near the shore. +</p> + +<p> +Following an old cart-track, we skirted the +edge of the dam in the direction of the saw-mill, +a dilapidated building with broken roof, that +seemed to have stood for many years of disuse. +To reach it we had to cross the sluice itself, and +Mary Lessing, who was a few paces ahead of me, +paused to look down over the single rough +handrail that protected one from a misstep. +</p> + +<p> +There is something forbidding about a mill-sluice +at any time, especially when dissociated, +as this was, from the companionable sound of +human labour. The sheer depth, the knowledge +of the vast imprisoned force behind one, the +sound of water gushing here and there between +the slimy weed-grown timbers, give always, to +me at least, an indefinable sense of the sinister. +</p> + +<p> +I leaned my rod against the railing, and we +looked down side by side at the black oozing +wall below. +</p> + +<p> +"I like this place," Mary Lessing said. +"There's something queer and creepy about it. +I often come here. I suppose they haven't +worked the sluice for years." +</p> + +<p> +"I doubt if the machinery would move now," +I said. "Of course this is never opened. There +should be a smaller sluice for the millstream +further on." +</p> + +<p> +I glanced as I spoke at the clumsy wooden +levers near me that controlled the sluice. They +looked to be rotting in their place, but as I +pushed one, idly, a sudden change in the sound +of escaping water below warned me that the +machinery was not in such ill repair as it would +seem. I exerted my strength to pull the lever +back, and my attention was momentarily +distracted from the girl beside me. She was +leaning out over the hand-rail, and when I turned it +was with a sudden cry of warning. +</p> + +<p> +"Look out!" I said. "That may not be safe!" +</p> + +<p> +I caught her arm instinctively as I spoke, and +on the instant the rail bent outward with a slight +sound of cracking. In another moment she +would have been over the edge. We looked at +one another, and Mary laughed, a little nervously +on the stillness. Her face had flushed. +</p> + +<p> +"I thought that rail was all right," she said +rather awkwardly. +</p> + +<p> +"Dick walked over here with me not a week +ago, and we tested it then to see." +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't all right now," I returned sharply. +</p> + +<p> +I put my two hands on the rail, giving it a +slight wrench outward. It gave easily to my +touch, and looking closer, I saw that the surface +towards the water had been half cut through. +Someone had tampered with it deliberately and +within the last few days. +</p> + +<p> +"What is it?" Mary Lessing asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Merely rotten, as I thought!" +</p> + +<p> +I turned away, and walked thoughtfully on +towards the saw-mill. The thing puzzled me, +but it had an ugly look. It was no idle mischief +that had prompted the act. Whoever had done +it, had done it maliciously, and the purpose was +not very far to seek. Hitherto I had not attached +much importance to the Lessings' occasional +laughing references to their unpopularity in the +village. Now it assumed suddenly a significance. +</p> + +<p> +I turned to Mary Lessing, walking beside me. +</p> + +<p> +"I want you to promise me something," I said, +"whether it seems to you irrelevant or not. I +want you not to come here again by yourself, at +any time. It's a lonely place and it isn't +particularly safe. If you come at all, bring your +brother with you." +</p> + +<p> +The smile that was on her lips at first faded +abruptly, leaving her face serious. +</p> + +<p> +"The rail was cut," she said quietly. "Is that +what you mean? It must have been, because +it was perfectly solid a few days ago." +</p> + +<p> +"Someone has been up to mischief. If there +are characters of that kind in the neighbourhood, +it's best to run no risks, that's all." +</p> + +<p> +We walked on a few paces, silently. The mill +was on our right, a desolate-looking building +enough, with its surrounding litter of sodden +chips and piles of cut logs lying here and there +In the open. A heavy smell of decaying wood +was in the air, added to the stagnant odour of +the dam itself. +</p> + +<p> +The setter was in front of us, sniffing to and +fro on the trail of the rats that infested the wood +piles. Suddenly he stood still, his ears laid back, +growling ominously. A short, thick-set figure +slipped from the angle of the mill wall and +vanished in the woods on the farther side of the +cart-track. +</p> + +<p> +"Aaron Menning," Miss Lessing said. She put +her hand and called the dog back. I was staring +up the track where the chicken-huckster had so +adroitly disappeared. +</p> + +<p> +"Does he live near here?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not very far off. I suppose he comes here +to fish. There are a good many in the dam." +</p> + +<p> +"Very probable," I said. +</p> + +<p> +"I dislike that man," Mary said after a moment. +"I guess it's mutual, too. The other one, +Jake, you know, had a quarrel with my brother +one time. He was always loitering round the +house, and Dick turned him away. Aaron's +always very civil when we meet, but I don't +believe he likes us any more than Jakey did." +</p> + +<p> +We took a turning past the mill that led us, +without further event, to the Lessings' bungalow. +Within sight of the house I parted from +her. I wanted to see Lessing again, but there +were a few points that needed readjustment in +my own mind first. As I walked slowly home +down the familiar slope of Dutchman's Hill I +was thinking that the industrious and +chapel-going Aaron might very well bear a little +watching. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap09"></a></p> + +<h3> +IX +<br><br> +PROBLEMS +</h3> + +<p> +I wrote to Herrick that same evening and his +answer came a couple of days later, saying that +he hoped to get away towards the end of the +month. I had said nothing in my letter about +the events of the summer, but merely mentioned +that the Lessings were my neighbours for the +time being. +</p> + +<p> +Herrick wrote: "I shall be glad to meet +Lessing again. He seems to have buried himself +in obscurity for the last twelve months. Is he +still as enthusiastic a theorist as ever, or has the +country sobered his ideas? In any case you are +to be congratulated on having for neighbours +three of the most charming people it has ever +been my luck to meet." +</p> + +<p> +I smiled at the "three." In my own mind I +could have substituted another numeral which +would explain much of Herrick's promptitude +in accepting my invitation. He was very much +mistaken if he thought that any such artless +device would put me off the track. In imagination +I already saw myself playing the rôle of a +reluctant gooseberry during his visit. +</p> + +<p> +Lessing, when I mentioned my expected guest, +made a comment almost identical with Herrick's own. +</p> + +<p> +"Herrick?" he said. "Good! We shall have +some arguments, Haverill, that will eclipse even +your own. If Herrick gets to the bottom of this +by any of his cut-and-dried theories and deductions +I'll give him best once and for all!" +</p> + +<p> +One thing at least pleased me. I gathered +from both their remarks that whatever difference +had occurred between them had been purely a +battle of opinion, and had no influence on their +fundamental regard for one another. Meantime +my meeting with Mary Lessing, and the +subsequent incident of the broken hand-rail, had +settled my mind on one point at least. There +was some malicious influence at work in the +neighborhood which was distinctly and obviously +human, whether it bore any relation to the +laboratory experiences or not, and at any cost, +even if necessary in the face of Lessing's +opposition, she must be kept clear of it. +</p> + +<p> +Three-fourths of the neighbouring population +were Pennsylvania Dutch, and I had learned +enough, in my own infrequent dealings with +them, to recognize their sullen aloofness, +amounting almost to a hostility, towards any +stranger settled in their midst. The Lessings +were for some reason disliked in the village, and +I fancied that much of the distrust towards them +was due to their having chosen for their dwelling +a spot which already had a sufficiently bad +reputation in the eyes of the country people +about. Lessing was by no means the sort of man +to make himself popular here, or even friendly. +He was more or less of a recluse; he had erected +a mysterious building in which, engaged upon +equally mysterious pursuits, he chose to isolate +himself until all hours of the night, and he +displayed an open indifference towards all the +current gossip and superstition of the neighbourhood. +Following the primitive psychology of +these people, narrow-minded to a degree and +distrustful of anything unfamiliar, his habits +alone were sufficient to brand him as an ungodly +character. According to his sister, he had +already fallen foul of Jake Menning soon after his +arrival, and I had no doubt whatever that Aaron, +out of revenge, had since done his best to foster +the already antagonistic feeling towards him. +The huckster's trade lends itself to all the +back-door gossip of the countryside, and it seemed to +me that I could trace easily enough the fruit of +Aaron's house-to-house visits. Aaron himself +was civil-spoken, industrious, religious to all +accounts, and a highly respected member of the +community; but all this did not weigh very far +against the man's face. Whatever ill blood ran +in the Menning family, it was certainly not +confined to the deceased Jakey. +</p> + +<p> +I mentioned my suspicions to Lessing a day or +two later, when I was at the bungalow. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, the man's right enough," he returned. +"I don't like his kind, that's all. I had a row +with Jakey because I didn't want him hanging +round the place and I told him so. Aaron has +never annoyed us in any way; on the contrary, +he takes pains to be particularly civil. I think +he's like all the rest around, glad enough to keep +clear of Dutchman's Hill and all its inhabitants, +dead or living!" +</p> + +<p> +Mary Lessing had asked me, on our homeward +walk, not to mention the cut railing to her +brother, and I had not done so. It was sufficient +for the moment that she had agreed to keep +away from the mill-dam and its immediate +neighbourhood. She was a sensible girl and I had +no fear that she would break her promise out of +any spirit of bravado or curiosity. +</p> + +<p> +We were in the sitting-room. Mary had gone +down to the village on an errand, and Mrs. Lessing +was as usual invisible. For the time +being we were free from interruption, and it +struck me as a good moment to tell Lessing what +I had heard from the reporter concerning the two +mysterious cycling 'fatalities. +</p> + +<p> +He took it even more seriously than I had +expected. It was even with scant patience that +he heard me out. +</p> + +<p> +"But good heavens, man," he cried, "why +didn't you tell me all this sooner? Don't you see +that it's what I've been expecting, what I've +been watching the papers for month after +month? It puts my experience clear of all doubt. +I have felt certain—as certain as I am standing +here—that sooner or later some accident of this +sort would turn up." +</p> + +<p> +"It was a good fifteen miles from here," I +said. "Besides——" +</p> + +<p> +"What's fifteen miles? I don't care if it was +fifty! Have you got the cutting with you?" +</p> + +<p> +I had. I had torn off the corner with the +paragraph, unobserved of my reporter friend, +and I took the fragment now from my pocketbook +and gave it to Lessing. He read it through +eagerly. +</p> + +<p> +"The facts correspond. The man was killed +in the open; he had no chance of shelter. The +thing hit him as he was riding." +</p> + +<p> +"It's not proved." +</p> + +<p> +"There's the damage to the bicycle." +</p> + +<p> +"There's exactly that," I said, "which to my +mind puts a different light on the whole thing. +If the impact of the blow was sufficient to +damage the bicycle to that extent, how was it that +the rider escaped all injury except a single +scratch on the face? It's out of all reason. +There were no marks on the body. That is +testified to. If a man is knocked off his bicycle +while riding at even an average speed, he'll have +some marks to show for it. He died from heart +failure, probably resultant upon fright and the +shock of the wound. Very good. But that +doesn't account for the bicycle. It seems to me +that whatever attacked him wreaked its spite +on the machine afterwards." +</p> + +<p> +"He had time to dismount?" +</p> + +<p> +"Possibly. It doesn't say how near to the +bicycle he was lying. If he fell at all he must +have fallen clear of it. The lamp was picked +up several yards away." +</p> + +<p> +"The lamp..." said Lessing. +</p> + +<p> +The same thought was in both our minds. +</p> + +<p> +"What date did this happen?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"It was a week-old paper. I was there ... wait +a moment." I made a rough calculation in +my mind. "This happened, apparently, on the +Thursday previous. That should bring it to +about the third of the month." +</p> + +<p> +"The third was a Thursday," said Lessing. He +pulled out an almanac from the bookshelves and +ran the pages over. I saw him frown. +</p> + +<p> +"There was a full moon on that evening. It +is just possible he was riding without a light at +all. If so, that throws my whole theory out." +</p> + +<p> +"The whole thing," said I, "looks to me like +the work of a maniac. Take the lamp. It was +picked up some yards away. Now a bicycle +lantern isn't merely hung on; it's screwed on, +and you can't imagine any sort of blow struck +from above that would dislodge it and throw it +that distance. It must have been either +unscrewed or torn off, deliberately, and that in +itself suggests human agency." +</p> + +<p> +Lessing barely heard me. He was staring at +the scrap of paper spread out on his knee. +</p> + +<p> +"The first man, according to your reporter +was killed actually in the woods. The second +was picked up some twenty feet from the edge +of the woods, on the open road. That's +important. It was a clear night. Why should he be +attacked in the open when there were woods +within half a dozen yards that would have given +ample ambush?" Unconsciously he was repeating +the reporter's argument. "That doesn't look +like the work of a human being. Besides, the +man wasn't robbed. I tell you, Haverill, there's +something that doesn't satisfy me in all this. +Either they made some extraordinary mistake, +or ... but he was riding <i>towards</i> the woods!" +</p> + +<p> +"Apparently." +</p> + +<p> +"On what evidence?" +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose the position of the bicycle," I said +lamely. +</p> + +<p> +"There had been no rain for some days. The +roads are hard about here, and a bicycle +wouldn't be likely to leave tracks, especially +on the edge of the path. You're a doctor, +Haverill. Suppose a man died from heart failure, +would he necessarily die at the instant of +the shock?" +</p> + +<p> +"Only in romances. Actually, there would +be several seconds' interval at least." +</p> + +<p> +"He might run, say, twenty feet and then drop?" +</p> + +<p> +"Quite possibly. But I don't see how that +helps." +</p> + +<p> +"It means just this," said Lessing, "that +according to my idea the man was not riding +towards the woods at all. He was attacked +actually in the woods or at the edge of them, and +he ran the twenty feet to where his body was +found. Listen. The moon did not rise that +evening until 10.30. Anyone riding through the +woods the earlier part of the evening would have +used a lamp. He was a stranger in the district +and was identified only by papers. No one in +Coopersville knew him or had apparently ever +seen him before. Coopersville is not a large +place, and a case like this makes sufficient talk. +If he had passed through there during the +evening someone would have seen him, and it would +have been mentioned at the inquest. The +chances are that he had come from a distance, +and that he was riding <i>towards</i> Coopersville with +the idea of putting up there for the night. +Assuming that, and that he was carrying a lamp +at the time, we have our facts fairly clear. He +was attacked just within cover of the woods, +that is to say, where the light would be more +clearly noticeable than on an open stretch of +moonlit road. The overhanging trees would +break the attack more or less, which accounts +for the comparative slightness of his own injury. +The primary object of attack being the lamp, +the rider would have the chance of escape, +whereas if he had been struck actually in the +open, at full force, he would have been probably +killed on the spot." +</p> + +<p> +The whole theory was fairly ingenious, but it +didn't account for the wrecking of the bicycle, +for its being found where it was, some distance +clear of the woods and near the man's own body. +I told Lessing so. He looked at me queerly. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you ever seen a dog worry a stick?" +he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"We aren't dealing with dogs." +</p> + +<p> +"Whatever wrecked the bicycle could have +dragged it that distance." +</p> + +<p> +"If your theory has anything in it the bicycle +was carried. If it had been dragged they would +have found traces. Don't tell me that any animal +capable of such insensate fury as you suggest +would have had the intelligence to conceal its +tracks!" +</p> + +<p> +We were both getting rather heated over the +argument. It seemed to me that Lessing was +bent obstinately on maintaining his own views, +to the point of extravagance. For my part, I +was equally positive that the affair was due to +some human agency. Neither of us, therefore, +was aware of a shadow in the doorway until +Mary Lessing's pleasant mocking voice broke +in upon our discussion. +</p> + +<p> +"What on earth," she said, "are you two +people scrapping about so vehemently?" +</p> + +<p> +"We weren't scrapping," I smiled. "We were +discussing a problem—you might call it a scientific +riddle. It concerns the law which governs +the movement of bodies through space." +</p> + +<p> +Mary turned on me her invariable reproachful +glance when she suspected that anyone was +making fun of her. She sat down, pulling the +pins from her hat, and let the sunlight strike on +her roughened bronze-coloured hair. +</p> + +<p> +"Is it anything," she inquired, "with which +my inferior feminine mind might be capable of +grappling?" +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly," I returned promptly. "We will +illustrate it with the simple objects now before +us. How would it be possible, for instance, for +that extremely solid book-case to be moved, say, +to the other end of the room, without being +dragged or carried?" +</p> + +<p> +Mary affected to consider, her head on one side. +</p> + +<p> +"Simple enough," she said, laughing. "It +would have to fly through the air, that's all." +</p> + +<p> +There was a moment's silence in the room, +while I looked at Lessing and he looked at me. +</p> + +<p> +"Suppose we have some tea?" he said then. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap10"></a></p> + +<h3> +X +<br><br> +THE CHICKEN-HUCKSTER'S HOUSE +</h3> + +<p> +It was the last week-end in August that Herrick +arrived. For nearly two days before it had +rained steadily, and I had spent the time indoors, +discounting old scores in the shape of letters, +and enlivened only by a visit from Lessing, who +walked over in oilskins on the Thursday +afternoon to spend a couple of hours smoking on a +sheltered corner of the front porch. The weather +lifted on Friday night, and by Saturday morning +the roads were passable. As I did not expect +Herrick before the 5.40 train I took my bicycle +out after lunch and went for a spin to stretch +my limbs. +</p> + +<p> +I set out by way of the village, posting my +letters on the way, and intending to make a +circuit that would bring me home from the opposite +direction. I managed, however, to lose my +bearings, and after some fruitless bungling stopped +at a farmhouse to ask my way. The farmer +seemed rather less taciturn than most of the folk +about, and readily pointed me out a short cut +which, according to him, would bring me out at +the cross roads just above the dam. +</p> + +<p> +The road, which lay for the first few miles +through cultivated land, entered eventually +upon a stretch of sparsely wooded country, +desolate and inhospitable enough. Stunted +spruce trees, powdered with blue berries, clung +tenaciously to the barren ground, and everywhere +the grey monotonous boulders cropped +out, scattered as though in the idle finish to +some giant's play. Their uncouth rounded +outlines suggested from a distance a field dotted +with grey misshapen sheep, for ever movelessly +browsing. The road was bad; a horse would +have had difficulty in picking his way, and I +cursed the well-meaning farmer roundly as I +dismounted to push my heavy machine. +</p> + +<p> +A little distance on, however, things became +better. I reached the beginning of a wood, gaunt +ragged hickories interspersed with tangles of +wild grape-vine, and matted creepers, and a few +hundred yards beyond a broken snake-fence +suggested the whereabouts of a house. +</p> + +<p> +I came upon it at the turn of the road, a +square, red-painted frame house and barn, +surrounded by a medley of small sheds and +outhouses in every degree of dilapidation. There +was no gate, merely a couple of bars let down +in the fencing, and I left the bicycle a moment +and went inside. +</p> + +<p> +The yard upon which I entered was a litter +of old junk of every description, ancient packing-cases, +broken barrels, scrap-iron, and bones flung +into piles. The wagon-ruts leading up to the +house were sunken deep in filth, and an +indescribable odour filled the air, in which the smell +of badly kept fowls predominated. They ran +everywhere, a ragged nondescript crew, scratching, +cackling, gazing at me from evil yellow-rimmed +eyes. Many more were confined in the +coops, mere oblong boxes of lath from which +protruded gaunt heads and outstretched necks, +whose mournful protest mingled with the +clamour of their untrammelled brethren. So far +as I could see, every shed held its prisoners, all +in the same state of filth and neglect, a sore to +the eyes and offence to the nostrils. There was +that in the look and smell of the place that stuck +in my throat, used as I was to poverty in both +town and country. There seemed no one about, +and after a moment's hesitation I retraced my +steps across the black mire of the yard and +regained the roadway. +</p> + +<p> +On the opposite side of the way a little ragged +girl of about thirteen watched my retreat with +keen eyes. She had been in the woods gathering +the small uneatable nuts that children call +pig-hickories; her apron was filled with the green +unripe hulls. She grinned, backing a little at +my approach. +</p> + +<p> +"Hello, sis," I said. "Who lives in that house there?" +</p> + +<p> +"'S Mister Menning's." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah!" I took another backward glance at the +ill-kept yard, with its indescribable litter. As +I did so a low moan, almost human in its misery, +came from the barn behind the jumbled sheds. +It was repeated, long-drawn and mournful, the +protest of a dumb thing exhausted by suffering. +I turned to the child sharply. +</p> + +<p> +"What's the matter there?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's the cow." She shuffled her bare toes in +the dust, looking with a fascinated curiosity +towards the place whence the sound came. "She +hollers awful sometimes." +</p> + +<p> +"Is it ill?" +</p> + +<p> +"Mennin beats her." She said with the +curious indifference of the country-bred child +towards animal suffering. "He's allus beatin' her. +Gran'pap's spoke to him, onct. He says she don't +make no profit an' Gran'pa says she can't make +no profit if he's allus beatin' her." +</p> + +<p> +I remembered her face suddenly. +</p> + +<p> +"Aren't you Mrs. Nevill's little girl, from the Bend?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yep. Gran'pa's house is jest back there." She +jerked her head up the road. +</p> + +<p> +"How's your mother? I'll step in and see her, +as I'm here." +</p> + +<p> +"Mother's up. She's been washin'." +</p> + +<p> +She began to retreat up the road, with the +sudden movement of a half-wild thing, and I +followed her, glad enough to turn my back on +the chicken-huckster's dwelling. The moaning +of the cow was in my ears again as I walked on. +</p> + +<p> +I knew the Nevills' cottage, and my road from +there lay straight enough. I had never +approached the Bend before from this side, and +so the lie of the land was unfamiliar to me. The +Nevills were one of the few Irish families about. +The household consisted of a rheumatic old +grandfather, his daughter, whom I had attended +a short while ago, and her husband, a steady +young fellow who worked at a harness factory +in the village. +</p> + +<p> +Paddy was an old sinner if there ever lived +one, but now, along in the green seventies, he +confined himself to the cultivation of religion +and the smoking of a particularly vile corncob +pipe. He had been employed most of his life +on the railway, and his rheumatism was the +result of six weeks' work in a flooded cutting. +Providence had released him some two years +ago from a vituperative wife, whose latter years +had been soured by the burden of an invalid +husband; I gathered from the old man's talk +that she had to her last day regarded his +rheumatism as a form of criminal idleness, and since +her death Paddy had taken a fresh lease of life. +</p> + +<p> +I found him on his usual corner of the cottage +porch, his square old head with its bristly +jaws—Paddy still shaved once a week—framed by +the window-ledge and its row of flowering plants +in tin cans. His daughter was inside, getting +supper, and the new baby lay in a ramshackle +baby-coach near Paddy's elbow. He was rocking +the coach with one toe on the wheel while +he smoked, the smell of his unspeakable tobacco +mingling with that of the frying onions in the +kitchen, through the open door. +</p> + +<p> +I always felt like holding my breath when I +approached the Nevill cottage. The stuffiness +was of that permanent, impenetrable sort +which seems to encompass the house solidly for +a radius of five yards at least. +</p> + +<p> +I sat down on the porch step and asked after +Paddy's rheumatism. He looked down at his +feet, shapeless in list slippers, like fearsome +parcels. +</p> + +<p> +"I ain't long fur this world, doctor, and that's +truth I'm tellin' yer. Don't I know it? We +ain't a long-lived fam'ly. Me father died at +seventy-eight an' me brother at eighty, an' I'm +thinkin' I won't be long after thim." He raised +his voice suddenly to a shout, without turning, +"Mary, git a cheer out fur th' doctor!" +</p> + +<p> +I refused the chair hastily; the porch step at +least bordered on fresh air. +</p> + +<p> +"I've just come round by Aaron Menning's +place," I said. "I met the little girl there." +</p> + +<p> +Paddy's face darkened. +</p> + +<p> +"Ain't I allus tellin' the young limb I won't +hev her hangin' round the likes of thim dirrty +Dutchmen! It's her mother'll be after takin' +the strap to her fur that. The place ain't fit +fur a dog these days. Did ye take heed to the +cow there?" +</p> + +<p> +I nodded. +</p> + +<p> +"The poor baste do be after cryin' day an' +night, like a Christian. I've told him again an' +again, but he's a bad man is Aaron. He's took +after his brother, an' that's sayin' ill enough +of anyone. Ye wouldn't mind Jake Mennin', +doctor?" +</p> + +<p> +"No. It was before I came here." +</p> + +<p> +"Sure I've lived neighbors to thim fifteen +years, an' I've seen things to turn your stomach +on yer. He had a bad streak in him, Jake, an' +it was the devil took him in the end. They +had a little girl there workin', the year before +Jake died.... That's why I tell Lizzie I'll +break her neck before I see her hangin' round +there. The ould mother's a decent woman, or +used to be. God knows the poor soul's had +enough to turn her crazy." +</p> + +<p> +"There is a mother, then?" +</p> + +<p> +"Sure, but ye don't see her nowadays. 'Tis +Aaron keeps her to the house, most like. I used +to be civil spoke to Aaron a while back, but +sence Jake died there ain't no good to him at all. +Would any Christian man treat a dumb baste +the way he does? An' he treats his ould mother +the same, if all's known." +</p> + +<p> +He pulled on his pipe. +</p> + +<p> +"Two weeks ago, it would be, as we saw +her last. Yes, I mind now it was the day I +was thinkin' of puttin' the new winder-pane in. +She come over to borry a half-cup o' sugar, an' +I says to Mary to let her have it, the poor soul. +She had her hand all wrapped up to here"—he +measured a space on his gaunt grimy wrist—"an' +she says to Mary as she'd scalded it in the +kitchen. Aaron was away with the wagon, or +she wouldn't 'a' come then." +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose Aaron does a good business," I +said casually. +</p> + +<p> +"By the talk he does. I do be thinkin' he +does most of it in the next county, fur I don't +see him drivin' the village way more'n onct +in a week or so. He'll be gone three days on a +stretch wid the wagon, an' Lizzie's seen him +come home mornin's wid the poor baste in a +lather. Lizzie says he has hundreds o' chickens +there, an' he can't be after sellin' thim all. They +die on him all the time, fur she's seen him pull +'em out o' the coops and throw 'em to the pigs." +</p> + +<p> +I asked after his son and rose to go, after +turning the half of my tobacco pouch into +Paddy's old tin box. It was getting on toward five +o'clock, and I would have just time to clean up, +get the mare put in, and drive to the depot for +the afternoon train. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap11"></a></p> + +<h3> +XI +<br><br> +JAKEY WALKS +</h3> + +<p> +It did me good to see Herrick's cheery face on +the platform, and to feel the hand-grip he gave +me. Our friendship dated back to college days, +and unlike so many of those early intimacies, +it had strengthened instead of decreased with +the passage of time. Then, as now, Herrick had +been the same curious mixture of enthusiast and +practical hard-headed worker, and in spite of +the inevitable schooling of experience and years +of exacting and often discouraging labour, he had +carried into the early forties a certain boyish +confidence, a freshness of outlook, which gave +to one instinctively, on meeting him, the +impression of indomitable health and vitality. +</p> + +<p> +When we had tucked his valise into the back +of the buggy and turned the mare about, he +looked at me with a laugh. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Haverill, you look quite the country +practitioner already! Seven weeks' change—ye +gods! But you haven't grown a beard yet!" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm keeping the beard for my leisure +moments," I told him. "So far they haven't been +many." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't tell me this place is in the throes of +an epidemic! It looks like one of those ideal +Sleepy Hollows where you get about one call +for whooping-cough every six months. I came +here for repose, you know." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, you'll get it," I assured him. "You'll +get the kind of repose that keeps you awake +nights wondering where it's going to hit you +next. They don't want a doctor down here; +they want a new lunacy commission officer, and +the first suspect will be me. Oh, I'm going to +make you work, Jack! Have no idle dreams +on the subject." +</p> + +<p> +"Work! You look as if you'd forgotten the +meaning of the word! If ever a man had the +luck to stumble on a good excuse for a holiday +it's you. This air, this sky, these woods to fish +and loaf in—— Hello, what's up? The +whooping-cough I spoke of, or have you arranged a +little semblance of business for my benefit! That +good lady seems about to welcome us with open +arms." +</p> + +<p> +A woman was hurrying down the road toward +us, from the direction of my house. She had a +gingham sunbonnet on which flapped at each +step as she walked, and on catching sight of the +buggy with the familiar roan mare in the shafts +she waved her hand in unmistakable signal. I +pulled Bess up, and by the time the woman came +pantingly abreast of us I recognized her for +Mrs. Sliefer, who lived in the first farm-house beyond +the Bend, past the cross roads. +</p> + +<p> +"I been to your house, doctor," she began, +"an' Mis' Searle told me you weren't to hum, +so I come right on. My niece is took bad an' +she's been queer sence the mornin', and I'd like +you to come straight back with me an' see her." +</p> + +<p> +She spoke with an air somewhat of indignation, +born of her toilsome walk. Mrs. Sliefer +was a stout lady, to put it at the mildest, and +the heat and exercise had obviously tried her. +I leaned from the buggy. +</p> + +<p> +"Get right up, Mrs. Sliefer! There's plenty +of room, and you can tell me as we drive." +</p> + +<p> +She hoisted herself laboriously into the buggy, +with our combined help, and collapsed, rather +than sat down, between us. Luckily the seat +was a broad one. As it was, her generous +proportions all but crushed us. +</p> + +<p> +I kept the mare at a walk while Mrs. Sliefer +told her errand. Briefly, as I gathered from her +rather spasmodic utterance, the facts were these. +</p> + +<p> +Her niece, Rebecca Durn, who lived with Mr. and +Mrs. Sliefer at the farm, was keeping company +with the young man from Haskell's grocery +store. The young couple were in the habit of +meeting of an evening, after Rebecca had washed +her supper dishes, in the woods near the sawmill, +some fifteen minutes from the farm-house +and in the line of the short cut which the young +man used to walk up from the village. They +usually took a short stroll about the dam before +returning to the farm, to finish the evening in +the older folks' company on the home porch. +Yesterday, as I have said, was rainy, and +Rebecca had expected her sweetheart at the house. +As he did not arrive, however, and the weather +had lifted since five o'clock, Rebecca, thinking he +might possibly have gone to the usual trysting-place, +put on a shawl and her rubber shoes and +went out to find him. He was not to seen, and +she loitered a few moments in the neighborhood +of the dam before returning home. It was then +just getting dusk. According to her account, +she was strolling near the saw-mill when the +ghost of Jakey Menning, surrounded by light +and with flames coming from his mouth, sprang +out from the bushes and yelled at her. Rebecca, +struck of a heap, as she expressed it, had +still the sense to turn and run, and being a +sturdy young woman she speedily outdistanced +the alleged ghost and gained the shelter of her +own home. Once on the porch, however, she +collapsed in hysterics, and it was not until she +came to, a good half-hour after, that her aunt +and uncle could learn what had happened. +Rebecca's sweetheart had meantime arrived, and +being a strong-minded young man had at once +induced Mr. Sliefer to set out with him, armed +with a stout cudgel and the farmer's shotgun, +to investigate. They patrolled the neighborhood +of the saw-mill thoroughly, but needless to say +nothing was found. +</p> + +<p> +Rebecca recovered, but this morning, on the +matter being mentioned at breakfast, had +promptly gone off again into hysterics, a state +which had lasted all day, off and on, and which +her aunt had been unable to check. The hysteria +had brought on sickness, and the girl, so +Mrs. Sliefer told me, was now in bed in a state +of utter collapse. +</p> + +<p> +I told Herrick I would drop him at the house. +</p> + +<p> +"On the contrary," he returned, "I'll come +along, with Mrs. Sliefer's permission." +</p> + +<p> +We drove on accordingly, the three of us, +covering the distance past Dutchman's Hill and +the Lessing's bungalow at a smart trot. A few +minutes beyond the saw-mill, along the road +Mary Lessing and I had taken some mornings +ago, the Sliefer's farm-house came in sight, a +comfortable low-built dwelling standing back +in a good-sized orchard with the barn and +out-buildings clustered near it. +</p> + +<p> +We found Rebecca in an upper bedroom, +watched over by a mute and scared-looking +neighbor, who had been fetched in to sit with +her while her aunt was away. The girl lay in +bed, her eyes rolling, her hands twitching +nervously on the covers. There was nothing +alarming in her condition, which had been brought +about as much by Mrs. Sliefer's well-meant home +physicking as by the original fright. +</p> + +<p> +I went to the bedside and put my hand on +her wrist. +</p> + +<p> +"Now then," I said, "what's all this nonsense +about bogies? A big strong girl like you ought +to have better sense than to imagine such +things." +</p> + +<p> +She began to whimper. +</p> + +<p> +"I seen it—I seen it! It was all spoutin' fire! +It was Jakey Menning as sure as there's a livin' +God! Oh-h—I don't want to look at it ... I +don't want to!" +</p> + +<p> +She went off into another hysterical spasm, +and it took all my force to hold her still while +her aunt went for water. When it was over, +and she lay back on the pillows, still sobbing +exhaustedly, I took Mrs. Sliefer aside. +</p> + +<p> +"Give me pen and ink," I said, "and have +someone drive down to the drug store with this +prescription at once. I'll wait here till it's +brought back. Your niece will probably be all +right tomorrow, after a night's sleep, but keep +her in bed a day in any case." +</p> + +<p> +She took the prescription and gave it to her +husband. We heard his heavy boots creaking +out to the back door. I turned to Mrs. Sliefer. +</p> + +<p> +"And now," I said, "you're a clever, sensible +woman. What's your idea of all this nonsense?" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Sliefer was obviously flattered by my +description. She mopped her flat round face, +still shining from the walk. +</p> + +<p> +"Rebecca ain't no liar," she said. "She's a +good up-standin' girl, an' she ain't never showed +no foolishness before this. We was talking +about Dutchman's Hill on'y a few nights ago, +and Rebecca was the first to laugh about it. +'I'd like to see the ghost'd scare me!' she said, +right there. No. Rebecca seen suthin, or she +wouldn't ha' come home the state she did. An' +as for it's bein' Jakey, she'd oughter know Jakey +Mennin' well enough, seein' he's brought the +wagon round here time an' ag'n when Aaron was +busy." +</p> + +<p> +"You don't tell me you believe in the foolish +talk there's been, Mrs. Sliefer!" +</p> + +<p> +She stiffened. +</p> + +<p> +"No, an' I ain't sayin' I do, but sperrits or +no sperrits, Mr. Sliefer's goin' to get to the +bottom of this. Seems to me there' a law had ought +to deal with respectable girls bein' frightened +out of their wits ten yards from their own door-step!" +</p> + +<p> +"Listen," I said. "It seems that your niece +has been the victim of a very cruel and foolish +practical joke, but there's no good going into +the matter here and now. Only look after her. +If anyone is playing tricks around the saw-mill, +keep her away from there. She's in no state +to risk any more shocks. Don't let her go +wandering about alone." +</p> + +<p> +"I wouldn't ha' let her last night, on'y she +was so sure of findin' George Freeman there. +Rebecca was born an' brought up here, and she +knows the woods as well as our own front yard. +But there'll be an end of these doin's, an' I told +her so." +</p> + +<p> +"That's right." I paused a moment. "Who +was here, the evening that your niece spoke of +not being frightened?" +</p> + +<p> +"Only us an' Mis' Scholl there, an' George +Freeman. There wasn't one of 'em would play +a trick on her. An' George Freeman was in +at the house a'ready when Rebecca come runnin' +back." +</p> + +<p> +I did not leave until the farmer returned, +and I had seen Rebecca already quiet and subdued +under the influence of the sleeping draught +I had prescribed for her. Then Herrick and I +drove home through the dusk to the ruined +supper which Mrs. Searle had prepared so +painstakingly for six o'clock. +</p> + +<p> +"Well," I said to him, "what do you make of it?" +</p> + +<p> +Herrick smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"Ghosts don't usually 'holler,'" he said, "and +Rebecca seems to have been very clear on the +hollering, if on nothing else. I think we may +dismiss the theory of the defunct Jakey. And +by the way, who was Jakey Menning, and what +is this extraordinary tangle about a place called +Dutchman's Hill?" +</p> + +<p> +I gave the mare a light touch with the whip. +</p> + +<p> +"We are passing Dutchman's Hill at this +moment," I said, "and I'll give you the history +over our supper." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap12"></a></p> + +<h3> +XII +<br><br> +MR. CROWFOOT +</h3> + +<p> +I outslept Herrick by a good hour the next +morning; in fact, he was already up and out +by the time I came down to a belated breakfast. +I had one call to make in the village, and after +that, Herrick being still absent, I sat down on +the porch with my pipe and a newspaper to +await his return. +</p> + +<p> +There was no mail for me at the office, only +a couple of letters for Herrick, forwarded from +New York, and as I slipped these in my pocket I +wondered again at the curious silence of Lennox. +Since that short note from Queenstown I had +heard nothing from him, and he had neglected +even to provide me with the promised address +by which I could communicate with him in case +of need, an oversight by which he had certainly +secured to himself a free and uninterrupted +holiday, and which left me no choice meantime but +to await his return or such news as he might +ultimately choose to send. I must admit that +Lessing's phrase "bolted" stuck unpleasantly +in my mind, little as it accorded with my estimate +of Lennox's character. His haste to be off, +the lack of any communication from him since, +had more than a look of flight, but why, or +from what he had bolted I was still at a loss to +understand. +</p> + +<p> +I was still turning this over in my mind when +Herrick sauntered into view down the road, +accompanied by a stranger. Visitors were +sufficiently rare in the neighbourhood, and as the +two approached the house leisurely I studied the +new-comer with some curiosity. He was a small +man, of apparently some fifty years, sparsely +bearded, and dressed in a very shabby knickerbocker +suit of greenish tweeds. A soft felt hat +covered his head and at least half his forehead; +he wore dark glasses and carried a botanical +collecting-box slung over his shoulder. There +was something quaintly rabbit-like in his appearance, +enhanced by the air of timidity with which +he hung back while Herrick strode forward to +the porch to greet me. +</p> + +<p> +"I want to introduce Mr. Crowfoot," Herrick +said, with a gesture which had an effect of +herding the mild little man up to the porch step +as he might have herded some curious and +inoffensive zoological specimen. "He is down here +hunting orchids, and I came across him in the +woods and brought him along to have a chat +with you. You might be able to give him some +hints about the country." +</p> + +<p> +I shook hands with the little man and gave +him a chair on the porch, where he settled +himself shyly, his collecting-box across his knee. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm afraid I don't know much about the +flora round here," I said, "but I imagine +Mr. Crowfoot will find a good deal to interest him." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I am only an amateur," said the little +man. "I s—— I s—— I s-s——" +</p> + +<p> +He undoubtedly did, and the reason for his +shyness stood forthwith revealed. He stammered, +and had more than the usual sensitiveness +of his infirmity. +</p> + +<p> +"S-simply indulge a hobby," he finished +heroically. "It gives me an object for my leisure +time. I s-s—— <i>presume</i> you have lived here +some time, Mr.——?" +</p> + +<p> +"Haverill—Doctor Haverill," Herrick prompted. +</p> + +<p> +"Haverill." He repeated it in a certain child-like +way, as though to place the name definitely +in his memory, and immediately I was conscious +of a liking for him. He was at once so diffident +and so meticulously polite. +</p> + +<p> +"On the contrary, I've been here only a month +or so, taking a friend's place for the time. The +country about is delightful, so far as I know it." +</p> + +<p> +"Delightful!" he echoed, and lapsed into a +pleased silence, which lasted so long that +Herrick rose. +</p> + +<p> +"I want to change my shoes," he said. "I've +been up to the neck in bog. I don't know our +resources, Austin, but I guess we can offer +Mr. Crowfoot a drink?" +</p> + +<p> +"Water—I should l-like very much a plain +glass of water," said the little botanist. +</p> + +<p> +"And a cigar at all events," I supplemented. +"I should have some pretty decent cigars +somewhere around that my predecessor left here. +Look in the drawer in the surgery, Jack, will +you?" +</p> + +<p> +Herrick reappeared a moment later with the +box. +</p> + +<p> +"Excellent," said our new friend as he helped +himself. "Excellent! Apparently you d-d-don't +care for these cigars then, Doctor Haverill?" +</p> + +<p> +I laughed. "Oh, I only smoke a pipe, as a +rule!" +</p> + +<p> +"You make, if I may s-say so, a great error," +he said gravely. +</p> + +<p> +He smoked for a few moments tranquilly, +his gaze, behind the dark glasses, seeming to +rest dreamily on the stretch of road before the +house. +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose you are staying in the village?" +I asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Over there." He made a vague gesture +which included half the visible landscape. +"With some excellent people of the name of +S-S-Sliefer." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Sliefer's," I said, interested. "I know +them slightly. The big farm-house past the +saw-mill." +</p> + +<p> +"Precisely," he agreed, and gave me a look +before relapsing again into silence. +</p> + +<p> +Our conversation, if it could be called so, +languished. It was evident to me that his +shyness was battling with the desire to be off—I +judged that Herrick had fairly dragged him here +out of a mistaken cordiality—and after the +exchange of a few more spasmodic sentences I +accepted his courteous and timid explanation +that the Sliefers dined at midday and would +be expecting him back, and rose to shake hands. +</p> + +<p> +"A queer chicken!" said Herrick as we +watched his jerky little figure disappear down +the road. "I picked him up back in the woods +there, grubbing around the saw-mill, and brought +him along for your benefit—a quaint example +of the Pennsylvanian fauna! Timidicus +professus, or ground-dwelling goo-goo bird. +Difficult of approach and does not thrive in +captivity. Guess he's more than a bit batty, by +his looks." +</p> + +<p> +"Mrs. Sliefer never mentioned a boarder," +I remarked. "He must be a new arrival. It's +to be hoped he won't come to any grief in his +grubbing around, as you call it." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, the gods protect the innocent," laughed +Herrick. "Even the alleged ghost of Jakey +Menning would have pity. By the way, the fair +Rebecca's tale is still firmly believed in, by the +Sliefers at any rate. The latest village version +is that she was chased clear to the garden fence +and that her skirt still shows five scorched +prints where the ghostly fingers clutched. The +neighbourhood must have been quite worked up. +It was bad enough when Jakey had the decency +to keep to one place at least, but now he has +taken, like the wind, to blowing where he listeth, +folks are getting scary. I got that much from +our guileless little friend, though he professes +himself to be quite indifferent on the subject. +Of course you, as the village doctor, are above +such gossip, so I thought I'd go gleaning for +you." +</p> + +<p> +"Someone's doing it," I said. +</p> + +<p> +"Of course someone did, in the case of +Rebecca at least. Real ghosts don't holler, as I +said before, and the blue-fire details smell +strongly of the common or garden matchbox. +But as our little professor-bird spends most of +his time in the woods about there, I thought his +observations might come in useful." +</p> + +<p> +"Private detective, eh?" +</p> + +<p> +Herrick smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I'm sufficiently interested in the Lessing +problem to be anxious to clear out the +undergrowth, if you follow me. That done, one can +judge a bit more clearly. If there's any foolery +going on we'll run it to the ground, and Crowfoot +may come in useful there." +</p> + +<p> +"I've a good notion," I said, knocking my pipe +out, "to try some watching round that locality +myself one of these nights." +</p> + +<p> +"It wouldn't be any good," he returned, "for +the simple reason that Jakey wouldn't +demonstrate to you or me any more than he's +demonstrated to Lessing. He chooses those he wants +to favour. As a matter of fact, by the aid of +my bedroom window, the convenience of which +you have probably under-estimated, Austin, I +spent last night prowling myself. No, I didn't +let you into it because I wanted to be alone. +Needless to say, there was nothing doing. But +I've found out one thing. There's someone else +interested in the game besides us. I don't know +who. But we narrowly escaped collision, and +gave each other mutually a wide berth." +</p> + +<p> +"It couldn't have been the ghost himself, +whoever he is?" +</p> + +<p> +"I think not. It was too obvious we were +both out on the same errand. Like the +Irishman, we each thought we were someone else +and when we met it was neither of us!" He +smiled at the recollection. "Well, I suppose +we'll get at the root of the thing some day!" +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap13"></a></p> + +<h3> +XIII +<br><br> +AN AFTERNOON DRIVE +</h3> + +<p> +It was towards the end of that week that we +drove over to the bungalow, one afternoon, for +tea. The teacups were set out on the porch, +and Mary Lessing, in a white frock, sprang up +from one of the big basket-chairs to greet us +with a comical dismay. +</p> + +<p> +"I've dragged you over here," she began +promptly, "and now I'll tell you the worst at +once. There is not—one—lump—of sugar in +the entire house. I've looked. So either you +will drink your tea sugarless, smile sweetly, and +say it doesn't matter, or else one of you has got +to come right down to the village with me and get +some. You can take your full choice about it. +I'm glad to see you had the thoughtfulness to +drive, anyway." +</p> + +<p> +Herrick sat down with alacrity. +</p> + +<p> +"I am a tired man," he announced, "supposed +to be on a holiday, and I'm not going to +the village to get anything till I've had tea, and +I'm not going to drink tea without sugar, not +even if you promise to smile in the teacup, Mary +Lessing. So I guess it's up to you and Haverill. +And I think that after all my excellent instructions +of the past fourteen years you ought to be +a better housekeeper. It's scandalous and +disgusting of you. Where's Dick?" +</p> + +<p> +"In the laboratory." +</p> + +<p> +"A day like this! I'll rout him out of that +in just two seconds. Ho, Dick!" +</p> + +<p> +There was no response, and he rose grumbling, +and trailed round to the laboratory door. +Mary looked at me. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you mind?" she said meekly. +</p> + +<p> +I slipped off the mare's hitching-strap, and +Mary climbed into the buggy beside me. We +took the road past Sliefer's, and it is to be +admitted that I made no effort to hurry. Our +errand might reasonably be supposed to take +an hour, and since chance had so obligingly +given me that hour I was going to make the +most of it. +</p> + +<p> +As a matter of fact, I got precious little good +out of it. +</p> + +<p> +Romance probably demands, here, that I +should describe how Mary and I drove side by +side through the mellow autumn-tinted woods, +how we spoke of the beauty of nature around us, +and how gradually a sweet sense of companionship +grew up in our young and sympathetic souls. +</p> + +<p> +Instead Mary spoilt the whole thing by her +hurry to get that sugar. If the life of the whole +household, including Herrick, had depended upon +it, she couldn't have been more sternly anxious +to get to the village, to buy that sugar and to +convey that sugar swiftly and relentlessly home. +Looking back, I can see now that her attitude in +the matter was only part of a constraint that had +been growing between us subtly ever since +Herrick's arrival. A certain frank comradeship, +as I had been pleased to think it, that had sprung +into being on the morning of our impromptu +picnic, had wavered and dropped, leaving +nothing in its place. I could not decide that she +actually avoided me, though she certainly +devoted a good deal of attention to Herrick when +we were all together. Be that as it may, her +professed anxiety on the sugar question that +afternoon justly irritated me. We began with +constraint, and ended in something very like +open warfare. +</p> + +<p> +It was probably not the first time that a +perverse imp of circumstance, or call it what you +will, has induced two young people, who started +out on apparently good terms, to waste the +precious moments of each other's uninterrupted +company in being pointedly and deliberately +disagreeable, and that for no reason that either of +them could frame. The imbecility of that drive +stands out in my memory now. We should both +of us have known better. The whole thing had +begun in such a meaningless way as to have no +possible excuse. We had started, as I say, on +good terms, with every equipment for a pleasant +hour, and instead we each, in our own way, +chose to behave abominably. +</p> + +<p> +After one unique and disastrous attempt at +conversation, I remember, we said no more, but +drove on side by side in a ridiculous and stony +silence, each thinking how disagreeable the other +was, and wondering mutually what we had ever +liked in one another. +</p> + +<p> +There was the usual group of loafers gathered +on the porch of Haskell's grocery store when +we reached the village. I left Mary seated in +the buggy outside while I went in to buy the +sugar. A brisk-mannered young man, with fair +hair, served me, and it was my fancy that he +dawdled a little over making up the parcel. The +proprietor was busy near by at the time, and +from the side-glance the assistant gave him I +gathered that the latter was purposely stretching +out his task to gain time. I was not wrong. +Upon the proprietor crossing to the back of the +store, where the cash register stood, the young +man leaned forward across the counter. +</p> + +<p> +"Doctor," he began, "I would like a few words +with you sometime when you aren't busy." +</p> + +<p> +"Why, certainly," I answered. "Any time +you like. You want advice about something?" +</p> + +<p> +It was almost the first time I had had occasion +to go into the store, and the assistant was quite +a stranger to me. I was probably known to him +by sight, but I wondered at his choosing such a +confidential way to approach me if he merely +wanted medical advice; I kept the same office +hours as Lennox had done, and everyone in the +village knew where and when to find me. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm George Freeman," he said. "It wasn't +advice exactly. I just ... wanted to see you." +</p> + +<p> +George Freeman ... suddenly I remembered. +It was the name of Rebecca Burn's sweetheart, +the young man who had shown such decision on +the evening of the ghost scare at Sliefer's farm. +I looked at him with new interest. +</p> + +<p> +"I shall be in this evening after nine o'clock," +I said. "Come round to the house. You know +where it is?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes. I'll be round." +</p> + +<p> +"All right." I put down a quarter on the +counter, taking up the parcel he held out to me. +As I did so a step creaked behind me and I +turned quickly. +</p> + +<p> +Aaron Menning stood near us. For a second +his eyes moved shiftily from one to the other; +then he put up a hand to the greasy peaked cap +he wore. +</p> + +<p> +"Arternoon, doctor," he drawled; "arternoon, +F-Freeman. Gimme some p-plug terbaccer." +</p> + +<p> +His face was impassive and stupid, but when +he pushed his cap back I noticed the veins on +his temples stand out. He approached the +counter with something of a swagger, his hands +in the pockets of his black oilskin coat, and spat +on the floor. There was something in the +movements of the man which I disliked, at that +moment, more intensely than ever. He had a +curious shambling way when he walked, which, +added to his thick-set figure, gave me the feeling +of something half animal, almost simian. It +amounted to an actual repugnance. I gave him +a curt nod while I waited for my change, and +lost no time in hastening out to the buggy. +</p> + +<p> +I put the parcel under the seat and took the +reins from Mary's hands. Curiously, my mood +of a few moments ago was all but forgotten as +I climbed in beside her. +</p> + +<p> +"Did the fellow say anything to you?" I +asked her as we drove off. A sudden suspicion +had struck me when I came out and found her +waiting there. +</p> + +<p> +"Who?" +</p> + +<p> +"Aaron Menning." +</p> + +<p> +"No. I just saw him go into the store." +</p> + +<p> +She spoke with a studied indifference that +put me on the alert. Instantly I was sure that +he had spoken. +</p> + +<p> +"Why do you ask?" +</p> + +<p> +I set my teeth. +</p> + +<p> +"Because if he had," I answered rashly, "I'd +take the occasion to break his neck next time we +meet." +</p> + +<p> +Mary gave a soft little laugh. +</p> + +<p> +"Really, Doctor Haverill, I didn't know you +were so violent." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not," I retorted, "at least, not as a rule. +But the sight of that man always rouses in me a +peculiar and earnest desire to kick him." +</p> + +<p> +"I dare say he's really quite a simple and +kind-hearted man," said Mary, with no other +purpose, I felt sure, than to irritate me. +</p> + +<p> +"The rugged exterior that hides a beautiful +soul," I suggested, remembering that sinister +farmyard beyond the Bend. "That's as it may +be. The exterior is good enough for me, or bad +enough, as you choose to put it. If I get the +report of a S.P.C.A. inspector on that farm of +his, as I intend to do one of these days, we'll +see how Aaron's simple kind-heartedness stands +out." +</p> + +<p> +The words slipped out almost without my +knowledge. Mary looked at me quickly. +</p> + +<p> +"What's wrong at the place?" +</p> + +<p> +"Merely that the condition of it isn't +particularly pretty. I shouldn't have mentioned it. +Only a man that keeps animals in the filth and +neglect that he does ought to be made an +example of in any civilized community. I don't +know that there's anything to be gained by +interfering at the present moment, but I've seen +enough to make me keep an eye on him." +</p> + +<p> +For a little time we drove in silence. Mary's +face was grave and troubled. I was angry with +myself. I was a fool to mention Menning or +his place at all. Presently I turned to her. +</p> + +<p> +"Look here, you're not upset by what I said +just now? Because you've no need to think +twice about it. I said it because ... well, +because I hated to hear you speak about him +that way, even for a minute." +</p> + +<p> +"No. I wasn't thinking about Aaron just +then." She gave me a queer little smile. "Doctor +Haverill, I guess I've behaved pretty abominably +this afternoon." +</p> + +<p> +I flicked the mare with the whip. +</p> + +<p> +"Shall we say we both did, and call it quits? +I suppose it was in the air, somehow." +</p> + +<p> +"In the air," she repeated, smiling again, +then shivered suddenly. "Things are in the +air ... that's just it. I had a dream last night. +I suppose you'll call it silly nonsense, but it's +made me queer and restless all day. Doctor +Haverill, has Herrick said anything to you about +my brother yet?" +</p> + +<p> +"We talked one evening." +</p> + +<p> +"Well?" +</p> + +<p> +"We ... didn't get to any conclusions, that's +all. He has some theory. He hasn't told me yet +what it is." +</p> + +<p> +She looked at me steadily. +</p> + +<p> +"If he said that, it is because he knows something. +I am absolutely certain of that. And if +he knows ... Doctor Haverill, you are keeping +something back from me, you and Herrick +together!" +</p> + +<p> +"I am not. I wouldn't do it." I looked at +the girl beside me. "If you want me to swear." +</p> + +<p> +"No." She put out a hand. "Yes, one thing. +Can you swear to me that to your knowledge +there is no suspicion in his mind of any +... brain trouble with Dick?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I can swear to that, absolutely!" +</p> + +<p> +"I am glad." She was looking straight ahead, +down the road before us. "I don't think even +Herrick would have kept that from me, if he +thought it. Well ... I suppose I've got to +wait." +</p> + +<p> +We spoke of other things during the rest of +the drive, and she did not once mention +Herrick's name, or her brother's, again. We were +passing Sliefer's place when I caught sight once +of our queer little acquaintance of the morning. +He was just turning in at the gateway, his hat +pulled well forward, his little tin box under his +arm, and I nodded to him as we drove by. He +jerked his head in response, peering short-sightedly +up at the buggy through his round dark +glasses. +</p> + +<p> +"What a funny little man!" said Mary, after +we had passed by. "Is he staying down here?" +</p> + +<p> +"At the Sliefers'. Herrick found him in the +woods this morning. He appears to spend his +time orchid-hunting in the neighbourhood." +</p> + +<p> +"Orchid-hunting..." said Mary. She +turned her head and looked back at Mr. Crowfoot +rather deliberately. Following her gaze, I +was surprised to see that he too had turned, and +was standing looking after us from the Sliefers' +gateway. Seeing himself observed, he moved +hurriedly, and disappeared in the direction of +the house like a disturbed rabbit going abruptly +to earth. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap14"></a></p> + +<h3> +XIV +<br><br> +THE CRY IN THE NIGHT +</h3> + +<p> +A few minutes after we reached the bungalow +Mrs. Searle appeared. She brought a letter for +Herrick which had come by the afternoon mail. +</p> + +<p> +"It had a special-delivery stamp on, so I +thought it might be important," she said. "Pete +was busy, so I took the liberty of bringin' it over +myself. I was glad of the walk, anyway." +</p> + +<p> +I had my own opinion of Pete's busyness, +when it came to an errand up the hill, and I +tried to catch Mrs. Searle's eye, but her gaze +was discreetly lowered. +</p> + +<p> +"It's awfully good of you," said Herrick. He +slipped the envelope in his pocket, with a glance +at the writing. "Won't you rest a minute, +Mrs. Searle? I'm sure Miss Lessing would like you +to." +</p> + +<p> +Mary was getting tea at the moment, but +Lessing seconded him promptly. Mrs. Searle +shook her head. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll be gettin' back, sir, thanks just the same. +There's things to see to. It's done me good to +get the walk." +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't walk back, anyway," I put +in. "I'd be glad for the mare to be home, and +Mr. Herrick and I can walk over, later. You can +drive yourself, Mrs. Searle, can't you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly, sir, if you'd rather." +</p> + +<p> +She untied the mare and turned the buggy +carefully around before getting in. "Ask Pete +to give her a good rub down," I called. +"Mr. Herrick and I will be back by supper-time." +</p> + +<p> +As it happened, we stayed fairly late. The +tea resolved itself into a semi-supper, with the +addition of chocolate cake, canned pineapple, +and sardines prepared by some special and +deadly recipe of Lessing's in a chafing-dish. +It was a combination that induced a certain +languor afterwards in soul and body. Later, +Lessing having re-engaged Herrick in the game +of chess that our return had interrupted, Mary +and I found ourselves once more left to each +other's company at the far end of the porch. +She had attempted some quite ridiculous excuse +about dish-washing, but either the sense of +Herrick's near presence or the meal just finished +lent me moral courage to vanquish her objections +on the spot. +</p> + +<p> +"Either you invite people to your house," +I said, "or you don't invite them. If you +do, it's your business to entertain them. I'm +not an exacting person, but if it comes to +contesting my rights against those of mere crockery, +I warn you that I'm going to be exceedingly +disagreeable." +</p> + +<p> +Our talk on the homeward drive had broken +the aloofness of the past week, and I was minded +not to let her slip back into it at will. She sat +down on the wicker armchair opposite me, her +hands folded on her lap. +</p> + +<p> +"Would you like to see the family photograph +album?" she suggested. "We none of +us collect picture-postcards, so I'm afraid that's +the only interesting object I can offer you. Or +I might take you round the garden and show +you the site for next year's rose bushes." +</p> + +<p> +"I should be delighted!" I said ruthlessly. +</p> + +<p> +She made a mouth at me. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't think you are in a mood to appreciate +the exquisite sentiment of next year's rose +bushes," she returned. "It calls for a totally +different range of sympathies from yours." +</p> + +<p> +I lit a cigarette. +</p> + +<p> +"You don't know anything about my range +of sympathies," I remarked. "For all you know, +they may extend to objects even more ethereal +than unborn roses." +</p> + +<p> +"Impossible!" She pulled a spray off the +woodbine that grew round the porch pillar, and +began to pull it to pieces, leaf by leaf. "By the +way," she said after a moment, "did you tell +me that that queer little friend of yours was a +botanist?" +</p> + +<p> +"Of Herrick's," I corrected. "I entirely +disclaim him. He described himself as an amateur, +whatever he may mean by that. I gather that +it's his way of amusing himself on a holiday. +There are a good many people who seem to feel +lost unless they have some definite hobby for +their vacations. I suppose really it gives him +mild exercise and an excuse for grubbing about +in the open." +</p> + +<p> +"He takes other mild exercise," said Mary, +her mouth curving in sudden recollection. "He +was engaged in some the other morning, and +that's what made me so interested. I'm afraid +I interrupted him." +</p> + +<p> +"You'd seen him before, then?" +</p> + +<p> +She laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"I was taking Leo for a run before breakfast, +down the hill, the other morning, and I +came upon him just in the hollow there near +where the stream is, and I'd give you a hundred +dollars to guess his occupation. I don't know +if you've ever noticed a cedar there, Doctor +Haverill, growing quite near the road, on the +right-hand side? It branches off some little way +from the ground. Well, there he was engaged, +of all things in the world, in solemnly climbing +up into this tree and jumping out again. I was +walking along the footpath where the ground is +soft, so he never heard me coming, and the +performance struck me as so interesting that I +stood still for a minute and watched him. He did +it four or five times, and it looked as if he was +trying to see how far he could jump. The last +time he landed quite near to the edge of the +stream, and that seemed to satisfy him, for he +didn't try any more after that. Then he looked +about on the ground and began to smooth over +all the footprints he'd made. He'd just finished +when he caught sight of me. He had taken his +glasses off for jumping, I suppose in case he +smashed them, and as soon as he saw me he +grabbed them out of his pocket and walked off. +It was for all the world as if he was ashamed +at having been caught doing it. I suppose it +did look ridiculous for a man of his age to go +doing stunts like a schoolboy. I guess it was +some sort of an exercise, and he does it pretty +often, for he was certainly active at it. I thought +maybe he was a physical-culture crank." +</p> + +<p> +"A mild lunatic, more like!" I smiled. "Perhaps +the giddiness of youth returns to him at +times and he has to work it off. Maybe it's a +religious exercise—some obscure sect of +jumping Baptists. I'll ask him when we meet." +</p> + +<p> +Mary laughed, but her brows were drawn in +a puzzled frown. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you know," she said, "I have a conviction +that I have seen that man before. I don't +know in the least why. Generally I remember +people quite well. I feel that I have not only +seen him, but spoken to him. A thing like that +bothers me, because I ought to remember it. +I will sometime." +</p> + +<p> +"You'd remember if you had spoken to him," +I said. "He stammers quite badly." +</p> + +<p> +"Then that settles it," returned Mary gaily. +"I have only known two people who stammered +in my whole life, with the exception of Aaron +Menning, and one was a chemistry professor +at school and the other a spinster aunt!" +</p> + +<p> +My appointment with George Freeman was +at nine, and it was nearly that hour when we +left the bungalow. Herrick and I walked briskly +down the hill, and as we passed Dutchman's +Hollow I cast a curious glance at the tree which +had been the scene of Mr. Crowfoot's acrobatic +performances. It stood, as Mary had said, +almost overhanging the footpath, a strong +twisted-limbed cedar, noticeable as being the +only tree of its kind along the road. The fork +was a good six feet from the ground, and I +reflected that Crowfoot must possess more agility +than his appearance warranted. +</p> + +<p> +Herrick followed my glance. +</p> + +<p> +"A queer tree, that," he said. "Looks as +if it had been stuck there for some purpose. Do +you ever notice, Haverill, how some inanimate +things—if I may call a tree inanimate—strike +one unpleasantly? Now that tree, to me, +suggests a suicide every time I look at it. A man +might hang himself among the upper branches, +and you'd merely take his body for a part of +the tree." +</p> + +<p> +"Another horror to the mystery of Dutchman's +Hill!" I said lightly. "Heaven's sake, +Jack, but you're in a cheerful mood tonight! +You seem to have creepy things on the brain. +It you stood and looked at any tree long enough +you could hypnotize yourself into seeing things." +</p> + +<p> +"I merely called it unpleasant," returned +Herrick argumentatively. "To me it is. You +think that because I have taken a fancy to +dislike a tree I'm ready to imagine unpleasant +things about it. I believe that if it impresses +me that way, for no apparent reason, it is +because the unpleasant things have in all +probability already happened." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, argue that stuff with Lessing," I +protested good-humoredly. "It's more in his line. +I heard you at it tonight. I'm a normal man, +and I object to having my free imagination +harrowed over things that don't count. That +tree is a tree, and that's all about it." +</p> + +<p> +Our fooling had brought us to a pause at the +beginning of the little plank bridge, and Herrick, +leaning against the rail, had employed the +interval in making a cigarette. He smiled, +slipping his tobacco pouch back, and began to feel +through his pockets for the little automatic +tinder-box he always carried. He was methodical +over trifling things to a degree that occasionally +irritated me. +</p> + +<p> +"Then go up and touch it," he said. "I would +like to test that sensitiveness which you boast +that you don't possess." +</p> + +<p> +"All right." +</p> + +<p> +I walked up to the tree, impatient at my +own encouragement of such nonsense, and laid +my hand on the trunk. Almost as my fingers +touched the bark I heard distinctly a low cry, +cut suddenly and horribly short. The woods, +especially at night, are deceptive both as to +direction and distance, and, already half-expectant +of some trick, I could have sworn that +Herrick himself had done it. I wheeled on him +angrily. He was standing in the roadway, the +cigarette at his lips, the tiny flame of the tinder-box +flickering in his lifted hand, and by its light +I saw his face white and startled. +</p> + +<p> +"Did you do that?" +</p> + +<p> +"Do you think I'm a fool?" He caught my +arm and swung me round, facing the woods, of +a sudden ominously silent. For a moment we +listened acutely. Then Herrick flung his +unlighted cigarette away. "Come on. It was over +there." +</p> + +<p> +He started forward, in the direction where the +dam lay, breaking through the underbrush. I +followed at his heels. Along the road there had +been still a glimmer of light, but once under +cover of the trees we stumbled through dense +blackness, with nothing to guide us save +Herrick's vague sense of direction. Once he stood +still to shout. There was no answer. +</p> + +<p> +"Follow the stream," I said. +</p> + +<p> +We had struck the edge of it again; I felt +my boots sink in marshy ground, and thereafter +we made quicker pace. The brook was narrow +at this time of year, running a mere trickle in +its bed. It branched off from the creek just +below the mill sluice, and in spring carried off +some of the excess of water when the creek +itself was swollen. Just now, as I knew, there +was a scant foot of water at its deepest. I was +taking no particular heed therefore to my steps +when Herrick, a few paces to my left, called out. +</p> + +<p> +"Take care!" he said. "We're nearly in the creek!" +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke I heard, somewhere near us in +the darkness, the unmistakable sound of rushing +water. I stopped abruptly, bewildered, with +the sense of having somehow lost my bearings. +As we were going, the creek should have been a +good hundred yards on our left. +</p> + +<p> +And the sound was not the sound of the creek. +I had paused at the moment near the edge of +the brook; I could feel soft, saturated moss +underfoot, and I fancied that it grew even softer +and damper as I stood. Something swirled at +my ankles, and taking a step forward I was +knee-deep in sudden icy flood. +</p> + +<p> +Incredible as it seemed, the stream was rising. +I had barely grasped the meaning of it when +Herrick shouted again. This time he was +answered. A strong shout caught up the echo of his voice. +</p> + +<p> +"Hello, there! Where are you?" It was Herrick. +</p> + +<p> +And the answer came promptly, near at hand +now in the darkness: +</p> + +<p> +"Hello! By the dam. Keep clear of the +stream; the sluice-gate is giving!" +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap15"></a></p> + +<h3> +XV +<br><br> +SUSPICIONS +</h3> + +<p> +The warning came just in time. Herrick sang +out and sprang, and I could hear the splash +as he landed close beside me. Together we +forced a way through the bushes and tall weeds +and began to scramble up the sloping bank. It +was a thicket of alders and brambles; the briars +caught and tore at our clothes as we pushed +through. We came out not far from the sluice, +with the rush of escaping water still in our ears, +and above the turmoil of it I called again. +</p> + +<p> +"Where are you? Is there something wrong?" +</p> + +<p> +"I want help here!" +</p> + +<p> +The voice answered almost from under our +feet, midway down the bank up which we had +just scrambled. In a cleared space of the little +thicket a man was standing; my eyes, used by +now to the darkness, could make out his figure +outlined against the surrounding bushes. It +was Mr. Crowfoot, and he was bending over +something that lay stretched and ominous among +the trampled weeds at his feet. I had not recognized +his voice in the darkness, though it sounded +vaguely familiar. Herrick reached him first, +and was on his knees beside the prostrate figure +when I came up. +</p> + +<p> +"An accident, Haverill. I thought so. No, +he's alive. How did it happen?" +</p> + +<p> +"He must have fallen off the gate," said +Crowfoot. In the excitement he forgot to stammer. +"I heard him call out and went down after him. +I had only just time to drag him out." +</p> + +<p> +Herrick wiped his hand on the grass. +</p> + +<p> +"Cut his head open," he said briefly. "I +think there's an arm broken. Give me a hand, +Austin. We must get him up to the top." +</p> + +<p> +"Compound fracture and a broken collar-bone," +said Crowfoot in his precise tones, oddly +precise even in this moment. "I'm glad you +gentlemen came along. The head wound isn't +much, but there's probably a slight concussion. +If you will help me——" +</p> + +<p> +It struck me that he took the man's injuries +with a remarkable coolness, utterly at variance +with the impression of nervousness he had given +me that morning. It was as if he were the +medical man and we mere lay beings who had +happened along. Herrick growled. He had +found his tinder-box, and it flashed a tiny +glimmer on the man's face. +</p> + +<p> +"George Freeman!" I exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"You know him?" said Herrick quickly. +</p> + +<p> +"The sweetheart of that girl at Sliefer's. He +had an appointment with me this evening. He +must have been on his way——" +</p> + +<p> +I stopped short. I thought Crowfoot gave a +faint exclamation, but he said nothing. +Together we got the limp figure to the roadway +at the top of the bank, and laid him down. +Herrick turned to Crowfoot. +</p> + +<p> +"Was he with you?" +</p> + +<p> +"No. I was walking along the side of the +dam. I often take a stroll of an evening; I +sleep rather badly without. He was lying at +the bottom of the sluice-gate when I found him, +half in the water, and I dragged him out. I +supposed he had missed his footing in the dark +and cried out as he fell." +</p> + +<p> +Herrick and I exchanged glances. So far the +story might be true; we had both heard the +cry. +</p> + +<p> +"Isn't there a railing?" Herrick asked. +</p> + +<p> +"It was broken," said Crowfoot, "and has +never been properly repaired. I have spoken +about it several times at the farm, but +Mr. Sliefer has neglected to mend it." +</p> + +<p> +"That's so," I confirmed. "It's been broken +a good three weeks. Hardly anyone passes this +way, now the mill isn't working, so I suppose +they haven't bothered." +</p> + +<p> +"Well..." said Herrick. He rose from his +knees. "As he's known at the farm he'd better +be taken there. He must be properly moved. +We can't handle him like this." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll go and get help," said Crowfoot. +</p> + +<p> +Herrick looked at him squarely. +</p> + +<p> +"I prefer that we should go together," he +said drily. "Austin, do you mind staying here +for ten minutes? I suppose you haven't your +revolver?" +</p> + +<p> +I hadn't. I carried one usually in accordance +with Lessing's suggestion, but at this moment it +was locked in one of the surgery drawers. +</p> + +<p> +"Never mind," I said. "I don't need it." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Crowfoot hesitated. Then his hand +slipped to his pocket. Herrick had been cleverer +than I gave him credit for. +</p> + +<p> +"If you allow me, Doctor Haverill," he said +gravely, "I will leave you my own. I should +much prefer it. We are two, and it would be +better that you should not remain here unarmed." +</p> + +<p> +Again Herrick and I glanced at one another. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you usually carry a revolver when you +take your evening strolls, Mr. Crowfoot?" he +asked. +</p> + +<p> +"It is a precaution," replied the little botanist, +"which I consider to be quite harmless. As +you put a similar question to your friend just +now I presume the habit is not confined to myself." +</p> + +<p> +"Take it," said Herrick curtly. "We'll be +back in a quarter of an hour." And he +disappeared with Crowfoot along the path toward +Sliefer's farm. +</p> + +<p> +Left alone, my first and perhaps pardonable +impulse was to examine the chambers of the +revolver Mr. Crowfoot had just given me. One +of the cartridges had been discharged. I slipped +it back into my jacket pocket, where it +would be ready to hand, and took out my cigarette +case. There was nothing to be done for +the man beside me until further help arrived. +I reassured myself as to his condition. It was +as Crowfoot had said. The head wound had +bled freely, but we had already partially +stanched it with Herrick's handkerchief. The +right arm and shoulder were fractured, and I +suspected a rib as well. He could not have fallen +directly from the sluice-gate, but from one side, +with the bushes and the water to break his fall. +If he had struck one of the heavy timbers +immediately below he would have had his back +broken on the spot. As it was he was in no +immediate danger, unless from a concussion +the extent of which we could not as yet ascertain. +</p> + +<p> +I sat down on the beam which marked the +beginning of the sluice-wall, and fell to thinking. +The thing had not, to me, entirely the look +of an accident. Crowfoot, on a moment's +consideration, and in spite of the empty cartridge, +I exonerated. Freeman had not been shot, and +Crowfoot could have had no object in pushing +him over only to rescue him afterwards, and +undoubtedly he had saved his life. Possibly they +had quarrelled, and Freeman had lost his footing, +which would account for Crowfoot's prompt +action. Crowfoot was staying at the Sliefers', +in the same house with Freeman's sweetheart, +and where a young woman like Rebecca is +concerned there is always a possibility of +misunderstandings; but the idea of little Crowfoot +playing the rustic Don Juan seemed rather absurd. +And that question of the sluice-gate worried me. +It had been a dry season, the water in the dam +was even lower than usual; there was no earthly +reason why the gate should give way just then +with no extra pressure to account for it. +</p> + +<p> +Sitting on the wall, swinging my feet, with +the sound of the water in my ears, I found +myself listening mechanically to its rush. +Suddenly a thought occurred to me. There had been +no increase in the volume of sound since I had +been sitting there. If the sluice-gate had given +way only in part, the force of the escaping water +would by this time have widened the fissure. +</p> + +<p> +I rose, and walked the few paces to the top +of the gate. +</p> + +<p> +It was as I thought. The lever that +controlled the sluice had been pulled half over. +Bracing my feet firmly, I threw all my strength +against it. I had the force of the water to +contend with; as I pushed, the whole neglected +structure of the gate seemed to vibrate and +tremble, but little by little I could hear the gush +gradually decreasing, the seething and bubbling +below me quieted. +</p> + +<p> +I pushed the lever back as far as I could; +it refused to go the whole way, and I feared +to do further damage unwittingly by forcing +it. But the greater part of the escape was +checked. I went back to the wall again and +waited. +</p> + +<p> +The minutes dragged. It was a relief to see +presently the glimmer of a light through the +trees and to hear Mr. Sliefer's anxious +deep-throated hail. They had taken one of the stable +doors off its hinges, and Herrick and the farmer +carried it between them while Crowfoot walked +ahead with the lantern. +</p> + +<p> +I saw Crowfoot glance toward the sluice, but +he said nothing. With as little jarring as might +be we lifted Freeman's unconscious weight on +to the door, and I took Herrick's place in the +slow procession back to the farmhouse. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Sliefer, with Rebecca, white-faced and +stricken, met us in the yard. They had +prepared a room upstairs, and there we got Freeman +to bed and did all that was possible for him. +Unconsciousness spared him the pain of our +handling; the fracture was as ugly a one as I +have seen. The concussion was graver even +than we had supposed; it would be days +certainly, possibly weeks, before he would be in a +state to answer any questions. +</p> + +<p> +I decided to stay the night, and Herrick, +with the Sleifers' hired man, drove over in the +buggy to take a message to Mrs. Searle and +bring back what was needful from the surgery. +</p> + +<p> +In his absence I set myself to gather what +information I could from the Sliefers themselves. +George Freeman had been there that evening. +He had arrived earlier than usual, it being his +weekly evening off, and stayed only a short time, +saying that he had an appointment in the village. +On Rebecca teasing him, he had said that it was +a business appointment and that she should hear +all about it in good time. +</p> + +<p> +He had left the house at a quarter-past +eight. His appointment was for nine, and it +would have taken him nearly that time to walk +over, even by the short cut. It was already +close upon nine when we left the Lessing's +cottage to walk home, and at least twenty minutes +must have elapsed before we heard Freeman's +cry. How had he employed that interval, and +with what object had he lingered nearly three-quarters +of an hour near the dam? Instinctively +I thought of Crowfoot. He was not in the room, +and in the light of what had happened I felt +no hesitation in questioning the Sliefers about +their guest. +</p> + +<p> +He had come to them a fortnight ago, engaging +his room by letter. They often took a +boarder in the summer, and someone who once +stayed there had recommended them to him. +He was quiet and pleasant-mannered, and +anxious to give no trouble, an ideal boarder +from Mrs. Sliefer's point of view, though +Rebecca inclined to consider him "queer." He had +stipulated for a ground-floor room, explaining +that for some heart affection he was forbidden +to mount stairs. (I smiled, thinking of the +acrobatic exercises Mary Lessing had witnessed.) They +had accordingly arranged the back parlor +for him, which had a door opening directly on +the side porch. His meals were served to him +there. Beyond the necessary service they had +very little to do with him. He was not at all +talkative on account of his infirmity, but always +pleasant in manner. To their knowledge, George +Freeman had never so much as spoken to him, +though it was his unfailing joke to tease +Rebecca about the "handsome young city gentleman." +</p> + +<p> +So much for Mr. and Mrs. Sliefer's account. +Rebecca differed. Rebecca didn't hold with +"queerness," nor with mucking one's room up +with rubbishy weeds, nor with going out at night +to hunt toadstools. +</p> + +<p> +"Toadstools?" I said. +</p> + +<p> +"Fungy, he calls 'em. It's the same thing. +He says there's some that shines in the dark, +like rotten wood. I've never seen 'em, nor I +wouldn't go touchin' 'em if I did. Anything +would need to shine good and hard for him to +see it with those blue goggles on!" +</p> + +<p> +"Rebecca's jest set against him because he +wears glasses," said Mrs. Sliefer. +</p> + +<p> +"I like to see a folk's eyes," Rebecca insisted. +"I hate to have 'em lookin' at you when you +think they ain't." +</p> + +<p> +For some reason she seemed to distrust Crowfoot, +but there was certainly no suspicion, even +in her mind, of any possible quarrel between the +two men. Rebecca herself admitted his courage +in having pulled Freeman out. No mention was +made of the sluice, and I concluded that neither +Herrick nor Crowfoot had spoken of it at the +house. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Sliefer volunteered to sit up with Freeman +the first part of the night, and having seen +her settled in a capacious armchair near his bed, +I returned to Herrick in the parlor below. There +was a couch in the room, but we were neither +inclined to make use of it. It was my first +chance of speaking privately to Herrick since +his return to the house, and having closed the +staircase door leading upstairs, I told him briefly +all that I had learned that evening. +</p> + +<p> +"Crowfoot couldn't have opened the sluice," +he said when I had finished. "How does the +thing work? Do you suppose Freeman could +have caught at the lever as he fell and pulled +it over on him? It doesn't sound likely." +</p> + +<p> +"Impossible. The lever works in the opposite +direction." +</p> + +<p> +Herrick pondered. +</p> + +<p> +"He might have been fooling with the thing +and opened it, and then lost his balance trying +to get it back." +</p> + +<p> +I shook my head. +</p> + +<p> +"He knows the dam well enough, and he +doesn't strike me as the sort of man to go fooling +with a thing like that out of mischief. Besides, +he didn't fall from where the lever is. If he +had, and the sluice was already open, he'd have +been soaked through and probably drowned to +boot. Remember the rush of that water! Crowfoot +got him out, and Crowfoot was only wet to +the knees. He must have fallen partially clear of +the pool, across one of the timbers. The thing +looks much more to me as though someone had +deliberately opened the sluice on them while they +were both down there. Either the machinery +stuck, or they were interrupted before they could +do the worst. In any case Crowfoot knows more +than he has chosen to tell us. He may be +shielding someone; the whole business looks ugly." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm going to handle Crowfoot in the morning," +said Herrick grimly. "It's a case where +he'll find it best to tell all he knows. A man +who goes hunting toadstools at night with a +revolver lays himself open to misconstruction." He +stared a moment at the purple crocheted +mat on which the Sleifers' parlor lamp sat +enthroned. "Why on earth was he so keen on your +keeping that revolver, I wonder?" +</p> + +<p> +"Possibly for the same reason that had caused +him to fire one of the cartridges himself, this +evening," I said drily. +</p> + +<p> +"He had?" Herrick looked up. "Why didn't +we hear the shot?" +</p> + +<p> +"It happens to be one of those special revolvers +which are built to make as slight a report +as possible. I know the pattern. The sound +carries practically no distance. If Crowfoot +carries that revolver habitually it is because he +has good reason to be afraid of someone, and he +wouldn't have used it without serious cause." +</p> + +<p> +"Have you any idea," asked Herrick, "what +Freeman wanted to see you about tonight?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," I said slowly, "I have. You know the +night you came down here, Jack? It was Freeman +who was the most determined to sift that +ghost story to the bottom, if you remember. +From all accounts, he is not the young man to +take half-way measures in a thing that concerns +his sweetheart. I think that he has been +working on his own initiative, that he found out +something, and it was about that that he wanted +to see me. He made the appointment for after +dark, at an hour when he was not likely to be +seen coming or going from my house, and he +even took the precaution of coming by way of +the woods. Someone had an interest in +preventing him from keeping the appointment. +They watched him to the Sliefers' house, and +laid up for him by the sluice, which he would +have to cross on his way to me." +</p> + +<p> +"You mean Crowfoot himself?" +</p> + +<p> +"Crowfoot wasn't here at the time of the +ghost scare, and he didn't know of Freeman's +appointment tonight. Moreover, I don't think +he had even an idea who the man was till you +flashed your lamp on him. Remember it was +pretty dark there. But two people might have +known of it. They were both in the store at +the time. One was Mr. Haskell, whom I think +we may dismiss immediately. The other was +Aaron Menning." +</p> + +<p> +"Aaron Menning...." There was that in +Herrick's tone that confirmed instantly my own +conclusions. "Then if that's so, Aaron Menning +is at the bottom of the ghost business, and of the +whole Dutchman's Hill story. Aaron, the pious +chapel member! But why in heaven's +name——?" +</p> + +<p> +"There's a streak of insanity in the whole +family," I said. "Don't forget that Jakey was +said to be half crazy. Aaron has the look of a +criminal degenerate. How on earth he has +maintained his reputation in the village so long I +can't think. He is cunning and malicious, if no +worse." +</p> + +<p> +"I'd like to know just what hold that type +of man could have over Crowfoot," Herrick +said. "Crowfoot comes in somewhere. If it was +Aaron pushed Freeman over, what reason could +Crowfoot have for shielding him deliberately? +There's more behind it yet than we can lay hand +on." +</p> + +<p> +There was, but our plans for finding out were +destined to receive a rude shock in the morning. +</p> + +<p> +About two o'clock I left Herrick on the couch +and went to take Mrs. Sliefer's place upstairs. +Against my will I half dozed in the chintz-covered +arm-chair, and through my brain there +chased puzzling dreams in which Herrick and +I were trying feverishly to conceal George +Freeman's body in the mill-dam, while Crowfoot, +continually changing and rechanging into the +likeness of Aaron, leapt up and down from the +dizzy heights of a butternut tree and chattered +at us angrily as he sprang. +</p> + +<p> +Herrick was already drinking coffee when I +came downstairs. Rebecca had brought it in, +and with it a note addressed to me. +</p> + +<p> +I broke it open. There was a second bulkier +envelope inside with the note. Both note and +address were printed in small neat capitals, such +as a child might use. +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +"MY DEAR HAVERILL, +</p> + +<p> +"I REGRET THAT I HAVE BEEN OBLIGED TO +LEAVE FOR THE CITY BY AN EARLY TRAIN, AND +SO MUST POSTPONE THE PLEASURE OF MEETING +YOU AND YOUR FRIEND AGAIN TILL A LATER DATE. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +"ALEXANDER CROWFOOT." +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +On the second envelope was printed: +</p> + +<p> +"TO BE OPENED ONLY IF NOT RECLAIMED +WITHIN THREE DAYS." +</p> + +<p> +"Stung!" said Herrick. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap16"></a></p> + +<h3> +XVI +<br><br> +I CATCH A BURGLAR +</h3> + +<p> +I found Rebecca in the kitchen, weeping. It +was easy to see that she had spent half the night +crying, and I hastened to reassure her so far as +I could as to her sweetheart's condition. +</p> + +<p> +"And now about Mr. Crowfoot," I said. +"What time did he leave here?" +</p> + +<p> +"It must have been early," Rebecca answered. +"I was down an' about by five." +</p> + +<p> +"He gave you the note?" +</p> + +<p> +"He left it in his room. I went to put his +coffee like I always do, outside, an' the door was +open. He left another envelope for mother with +his week's board in. His bed hadn't been slept +in. He was writin' in his room all last evenin', +after he came in." +</p> + +<p> +"And his things?" +</p> + +<p> +"He didn't have more'n a suit-case, and he +must have took that with him." +</p> + +<p> +I went back to Herrick in the parlour. Crowfoot's +enclosure still lay on the table, and as I +took it up to put it in my pocket I felt sorely +tempted to break the seal there and then. +</p> + +<p> +"So he's lit out, temporarily," said Herrick. +"Well ... it doesn't look particularly wise +under the circumstances, but I suppose he knows +his own business." +</p> + +<p> +"Should we open the letter?" +</p> + +<p> +"No," Herrick said decidedly. "That point +is quite clear. The instructions are definite. +He gives us a certain date, and if he does not +reclaim his letter personally by then we are free +to act on our discretion, but not before. +Meantime we can only put two and two together. +Crowfoot was down here on some job in which +he anticipated personal danger, or he wouldn't +have gone armed. The cartridge he used was +not fired on Freeman, and unless I am much +mistaken the affair of last night upset, or at all +events abruptly altered, his own schemes. He's +learned something that we haven't, and I'd give +a good deal to know just what, but we can't +force his hand. Unless I under-estimate him, +he'll turn up to claim that letter all right." +</p> + +<p> +"Unless——" I recalled the provisional +clause on the envelope. +</p> + +<p> +Herrick smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"He doesn't strike me as the sort of person +to step off a plank bridge in the dark! That's +a pure bit of dramatic effect, in my opinion." +</p> + +<p> +When we had finished breakfast I drove down +to the drug store and telephoned for a trained +nurse. She arrived by the midday train, and +Freeman's condition being satisfactory, I was +able to leave him in her charge and go home +with Herrick. +</p> + +<p> +We refused the farmer's buggy and walked +over, following the short cut that had so nearly +proved fatal to one man at least the night before. +The water below the sluice-gate was at its +normal level, but looking over we could see the +line of uptorn weeds and flattened grasses that +showed where the brief flood had swept. An +alder bush on the left side, overhanging the +timbered edge of the pool, was partly broken, +indicating the point of Freeman's fall. +</p> + +<p> +We examined the upper part of the sluice-gate +carefully. On the wood near the lever I found a +few dried spots of blood. Herrick nodded +appreciatively when he saw them. +</p> + +<p> +"Looks as if Crowfoot's cartridge wasn't +wasted! Someone got hit, though not badly; +there's none tracked along the road. My respect +for our friend increases. Austin, why was he so +careful we didn't see his handwriting?" +</p> + +<p> +"Give it up. He's a queer bird anyway." +</p> + +<p> +I told him of what Mary Lessing had seen that +morning, by Dutchman's Hill. Hitherto it had +presented itself to me merely as a whim on +Crowfoot's part. Now I began to think he might +have had some object in the performance. +Herrick smiled when it came to the jumping, but his +face grew serious again immediately. +</p> + +<p> +"Austin," he said, "I give you a problem. +What is it about that particular tree that attracts +me and attracts Crowfoot? There's something +more than coincidence in it. Crowfoot wasn't +amusing himself. To my mind, he was testing +a theory, and if we knew what that theory +was...." He broke off, thoughtfully, and I +turned to him. +</p> + +<p> +"Well?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing much. Austin, whereabouts was +Jake's body found, last spring?" +</p> + +<p> +"Face downwards in the water, just near the +plank bridge. Why?" +</p> + +<p> +"Taken with Crowfoot's action, does that +suggest anything to you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing to do with suicide. Jake had a fit +and fell in the water." +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly." He walked a few paces in silence. +"Has it ever occurred to you what a really +admirable country coroner you would make?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't see what that's got to do with it." +</p> + +<p> +"Listen." He swung round. "Jake's death +was not accident, though he may have died +actually in a fit. He was frightened by someone or +something that sprang out at him from that tree +as he passed, and Crowfoot, depend upon it, was +merely trying to find out whether that jump was +within the limits of an ordinarily active man." +</p> + +<p> +We were both tired that evening and we +turned in early after supper. I had left +instructions to call me if there was any change in +Freeman's condition, but I anticipated none before +the morning. The nurse seemed a competent +woman, and I felt easy in leaving him to her +care. I slept like a log, my rest untroubled by +any dreams. +</p> + +<p> +Towards morning, as it seemed to me, I woke +up with that curious sense of something happening +which arouses one at times by appeal through +some subconscious perception. Five minutes +before a thunderstorm would have failed to +rouse me; now instinct dragged me up sitting in +my bed, of a sudden keenly and alertly awake. +</p> + +<p> +I listened. Someone was moving in the surgery +below. Mrs. Searle went to bed always at +ten, and I had the impression of having slept +already for several hours. I struck a match +softly and looked at my watch. It was a quarter +to twelve, earlier than I had thought. I felt +on the bureau for my revolver, which I had taken +to my room that evening, and opened the door +noiselessly. +</p> + +<p> +It was not Herrick, for I could hear his regular +breathing through the keyhole opposite. At +the foot of the little flight of stairs a faint light +glimmered. The stairs opened directly from +the surgery, and it was my custom to leave the +door at the bottom open during the night. Now +it was closed, and the light that I saw filtered +through the crack. I crept quietly down and +pushed it open, revolver in hand. +</p> + +<p> +A pocket electric lamp lay on the desk, and +by its light a man was searching through one +of the desk drawers. It was a small drawer +which had been always locked; I fancied that it +contained some private papers and affairs of +Lennox's which he had put together there before +leaving. The man's back was towards me, but +I recognized instantly the shabby tweed coat, +the soft felt hat pulled low down over his head. +It was Crowfoot. +</p> + +<p> +I don't know what I had expected; certainly +not him. I lowered the revolver and stepped +forward. +</p> + +<p> +"Were you looking for anything, Mr. Crowfoot?" +</p> + +<p> +At the sound of my voice he turned; his hand +shot out towards the electric lamp, and instantly +the room was in darkness. +</p> + +<p> +For a second we stood there, neither moving, +and we could hear each other's breathing across +the room. +</p> + +<p> +"Light that lamp," I said quietly. "If you +have any explanation I am ready to hear it. +I have a revolver in my hand, and if you attempt +to move I shall be compelled to treat you like +any other common housebreaker." +</p> + +<p> +"Listen here," he began, "and don't for +heaven's sake play the fool!" His voice sounded +excited, impatient, but with an assurance in it +that was somehow vaguely familiar to me, and, +as on the night before, there was no trace of his +usual stammering. It was the voice of a man +interrupted in important business rather than +caught red-handed in an attempt at common +theft. "Put that revolver down, Haverill. I +tell you, you don't know what you're meddling +with! I'm in a hurry. Let me go out of the +house now, without any questions, and I swear +to heaven I'll come back tomorrow and tell you +everything you want to know. I'll tell you +everything! But don't stop me now!" +</p> + +<p> +"You will, eh?" +</p> + +<p> +I laid the revolver down on a chair that stood +behind me, but only to have both hands free. +He made a movement, chancing the darkness, +but the room was too small. I collided with him +somewhere near the armchair—the solid mahogany +caught my knee an ugly whack through my +thin pajamas—and for a moment we grappled +together fruitlessly. +</p> + +<p> +"Haverill, you idiot—let me go!" +</p> + +<p> +He gasped and struggled, but I held my grip. +</p> + +<p> +"Not so easy. I want the lamp." +</p> + +<p> +He swore, wrenching an arm free, and the +little white bulb glowed out. He must have +slipped it in his pocket when he turned. The +light shone on our two blinking faces. Crowfoot's +hat had fallen off in the struggle, and for +the first time I saw him without his black glasses. +</p> + +<p> +It was Lennox! +</p> + +<p> +Stupefied, I let go my hold. +</p> + +<p> +"Now will you let me go?" he snarled. +</p> + +<p> +"I thought you were in Europe! What's it +all about? Are you crazy?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, you idiot!" There was a savage patience +in his voice. "Get on your trousers, then, and +come along. You were always an obstinate +devil, Haverill! Bring that revolver with you +and don't wake the house, and don't for God's +sake stand wasting any more time! I'll wait for +you." +</p> + +<p> +I ran upstairs. A hundred wild ideas passed +through my mind as I groped my way hurriedly +into sweater and trousers, in the dark, not even +staying to light a candle. I hardly knew, in my +bewilderment, whether Lennox had been +impersonating Crowfoot or Crowfoot Lennox; the +whole thing seemed inextricably and extravagantly +mixed. Curiously, Herrick had not even +been roused by our scuffle. I carried my boots +down to avoid waking him now, and pulled +them on in the surgery. +</p> + +<p> +"Take your revolver," said Lennox. +</p> + +<p> +We passed out through the door; he had used +his own latchkey to come in with. +</p> + +<p> +"Will you tell me——?" I began, when we +were clear of the house. +</p> + +<p> +"All in good time." +</p> + +<p> +A few paces up the road an automobile was +standing. Two men were already seated in it, +besides the chauffeur. One leaned out, watching, +and he gave an exclamation as the two of us +stepped into the light of the lamps. +</p> + +<p> +"It's all right," said Lennox. He almost +pushed me into the tonneau, where I tumbled +into a big broad-shouldered Irishman, and +swung up himself to the front seat. "This is +Doctor Haverill; he's coming along. Haverill, +this is Mr. Keary, the county sheriff, and +Inspector McWade." +</p> + +<p> +The chauffeur let in the clutch and the big +car swung forward in the direction of Dutchman's Hill. +</p> + +<p> +"And now, Haverill," Lennox said, turning to +me, "you wanted to be in it, and you're in it. +These gentlemen are accompanying me to the +Bend with a warrant for the arrest of the man +known as Aaron Menning." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah!" I looked at the burly Irish inspector +beside me, and the conviction of yesterday grew +clear in my mind. "For assault on George +Freeman!" +</p> + +<p> +"No," said the sheriff, speaking for the first +time. "For the manslaughter of his brother on +the seventeenth of last March." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap17"></a></p> + +<h3> +XVII +<br><br> +A MIDNIGHT CHASE +</h3> + +<p> +We swept on at a steady pace, through a silence +broken only by the throbbing of the engine and +the hissing whir of tires over the dust. On +either side of the road the woods stretched black +and inscrutable. Just before we came to +Dutchman's Hill Lennox said a word to the chauffeur, +and he paused to extinguish the two headlights. +Thereafter we drove more slowly. +</p> + +<p> +A few paces beyond the bridge, at the beginning +of the hill, the car stopped suddenly. +Something had gone wrong with the engine, and +while the chauffeur got out to attend to it +Lennox and the sheriff took the opportunity to walk +back to the bridge we had just crossed. +</p> + +<p> +"Have to get a light on it," the chauffeur said, +unhooking one of the side lamps. "The blame +thing might have held out a bit longer! We ain't +far from Dutchman's Hill, by all accounts." +</p> + +<p> +"This is Dutchman's Hill," I said. +</p> + +<p> +"It is, eh?" He glanced at the inspector; who +was holding the lamp for him. "Well, they say +one cuss leads to another, and be darned if I +don't give this place a worse name than it's had +yet!" +</p> + +<p> +Alone in the car, I leaned back against the +cushions, speculating as to the chance that had +drawn me into this midnight adventure and what +its outcome would be—the climax, for aught I +knew, of all the summer's mysteries. Of Lennox's +part in it I could but guess, but the +experience of the last forty-eight hours gave me +a confidence in him that overrode all earlier +impressions. Mentally I contrasted the vision of +Crowfoot, alert, cool-headed, decisive, with the +Lennox of my first evening's arrival, and +marvelled at the grip he had brought to bear on +himself in the two months' interval. +</p> + +<p> +The air was still and oppressive in the hollow; +the stench of gasoline rose in a warm reek +mingled with the stagnant smell of the swamp +close by. The mosquitoes were thick; they +descended in swarms upon us with the stopping +of the car, and a host of moths and midges +fluttered round the lamp, attracted by its glare. +The two men, bent over the engine, joked and +grumbled in undertones, as cheerfully as though +we were out on no more serious errand than a +mere pleasure ride. +</p> + +<p> +The sheriff rejoined us. +</p> + +<p> +"How long will you be, Jackson?" +</p> + +<p> +The chauffeur straightened his back. +</p> + +<p> +"Twenty minutes, sir, more or less. I can't +fix it under." +</p> + +<p> +There was a brief consultation, and the sheriff +turned to Lennox. +</p> + +<p> +"How far are we from the Bend?" +</p> + +<p> +"Three-quarters of a mile, by road. We can +strike a short cut at the top of the hill." +</p> + +<p> +"We'd better walk it. There's no good wasting +time. Get your job through, Jackson, bring +the car on to the top of the hill and wait for +us there, along the road. I suppose..." +</p> + +<p> +Lennox caught my eye. +</p> + +<p> +"I can rely on Doctor Haverill," he said +promptly. "As we are one man short already +I don't think it advisable that we should divide." +</p> + +<p> +"Very good. Have either of you gentlemen +an extra revolver?" +</p> + +<p> +I pulled mine out and gave it to the chauffeur. +He grinned cheerfully as he slipped it +in his pocket. +</p> + +<p> +"Right, sir! If any spook puts a game on +me I won't start tellin' my beads! Give me +twenty minutes, Mr. Keary, and I'll have the car +right there!" +</p> + +<p> +We left him at his task and set off up the +hill, following the little footpath at the side of +the road, Lennox and the sheriff in front, the +inspector and myself at the rear. When we +were nearly at the top the inspector paused. +</p> + +<p> +"There's fire somewhere," he said. "I can +smell it." +</p> + +<p> +"Someone been burning bush, most likely," +said Lennox. "We can tell further on." +</p> + +<p> +At the top of the hill it was unmistakable, +a sickly charred odor that hung heavily on the +air. Lennox gave an exclamation and quickened +his pace involuntarily. A moment later +the Lessing bungalow came in sight; there were +lights in the windows, and I caught sight of a +slim shawl-wrapped figure on the porch. Lennox +and the sheriff were well ahead, and as they +reached the bungalow someone stepped out and +joined them in the roadway. I heard Lessing's +voice raised in amazement. "Lennox, by all +that's holy!" +</p> + +<p> +"It's Menning's place," said Lennox as we +came up. "I thought as much! The game's up." +</p> + +<p> +"Burned to tinder an hour ago," said Lessing +cheerfully. "Hello, Haverill! Have you all +joined the local fire-brigade?" He caught sight +of the inspector's square shoulders behind me, +and whistled. "So that's it! Well, if you're +wanting an interview with Menning, I guess his +present address is somewhere in the woods +between here and Coopersville!" +</p> + +<p> +We ran on hastily to the Bend, taking a short +cut across the fields behind the bungalow. It +was as Lessing had said. The fire had broken +out some three hours ago, and his first intimation +had been the sudden lurid glare across the +tree-tops as he sat on the porch smoking a final +cigarette before turning in. The house, a +dilapidated structure at best, had caught from the +basement upward, and by the time he arrived on +the scene it was already beyond hope of saving. +He had given what help he could to the neighbours, +hastily collected, but with the limited +appliances at hand the task was hopeless from the +first. +</p> + +<p> +The huckster's yard with its strewn debris, +desolate enough by daylight, was made doubly +sinister by the red wavering light that still +played and flickered among the broken boxes and +tumble-down sheds, lit up the loathsome +scrap-heaps and the trampled mire underfoot. The +prisoned chickens, startled from sleep, kept up a +mournful squawking, pushing and struggling in +their coops. The efforts of the men had been +directed to the barn and cowshed. They stood +now, an awed, strangely silent little group, +gathered near a broken bureau and a pile of +household goods that had been dragged +somewhere from the burning and huddled forlornly +in the open yard. I remember that a wooden +clock, still ticking, and a filthy and ancient +foot-tub were among the collection. I spoke to one +of the men; it was old Paddy's son-in-law. +</p> + +<p> +"We done all we could; the old place was +no better'n tinder. Pop was fur lettin' it burn +an' not lift a hand. We got Miss Mennin' out. +Hiram Scholl he bust the door in an' got her. +She's over to the house now. Aaron ain't here. +It's funny about him. He ain't took the horse +anyway. They was sayin'..." +</p> + +<p> +He stopped short and looked at me, the +glare of the fire on his sweat-streaked face. +</p> + +<p> +"They was sayin' he started it. I dunno. +It broke out downstairs. They ain't no one seen +Aaron." +</p> + +<p> +And after a moment he added: "He'd oughter +be insured. There's no savin' anything." +</p> + +<p> +I went back to Lennox and the sheriff, +standing a little apart. +</p> + +<p> +"Aaron's gone," I said. +</p> + +<p> +"I know. There's nothing to be done here. +We'll go and see the old woman." +</p> + +<p> +I stayed behind with the inspector and +Lessing while the other two went over to the +Nevills' cottage, and together we made a +thorough search of the barn and outhouses. +There was nothing to be learned. Filth and +disorder reigned everywhere. To describe the +condition of the place, as we found it, would only +be to recall the actual physical sickness that +overtook me during the task. +</p> + +<p> +The neighbours had gradually dispersed during +our search. By the time the others rejoined us +the place was deserted. The fire had completely +burned itself out; only a tiny smouldering flame +pulsed up here and there, to die down again +immediately into blackness. +</p> + +<p> +McWade and the sheriff exchanged a few +words, and the latter turned. "Well, gentlemen, +I think there's nothing more to be done," +he said. "I expect Jackson has the car ready +by now. We'll walk back to the house, and if +Mr. Lessing has no objection I should like a few +words with him before we go." +</p> + +<p> +We did not meet the car, nor was it in sight +when we reached the bungalow. Mary Lessing +was on the porch, and while the others went +indoors I stayed outside to smoke a cigarette in +the open air and watch the road in case +Jackson turned up. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm glad it was Menning's house, if it had +to be somebody's," said Mary, with really +feminine lucidity. "I wanted to go, but Dick +wouldn't let me. I guess I wouldn't have been +much use. Doctor Haverill, is it ... Aaron +they're after?" +</p> + +<p> +"They think he had something to do with +that business last spring. It's Lennox's story. +I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. +Anyway I'll take back all I said against him last +night." +</p> + +<p> +She had heard nothing of the accident at the +dam, and I told her as briefly as I could all that +had happened since we left the bungalow last +evening. She listened breathlessly. +</p> + +<p> +"So it was Doctor Lennox all the time! Now +I know why he didn't want to meet me that +morning. I was sure I knew him, somehow." +</p> + +<p> +"You were smarter than we were," I admitted. +"He took us in. Only I don't see why, now." +</p> + +<p> +"Sliefer's is near to Aaron's place," said Mary, +"and if he was watching Aaron he wouldn't want +anyone to know who he was. You think it was +Aaron who attacked Freeman last night?" +</p> + +<p> +"I am nearly sure of it." +</p> + +<p> +Mary shivered. "It's horrible," she said. +"It's horrible! I wish now——" +</p> + +<p> +"What?" +</p> + +<p> +"I wish I'd known," she said quickly. "That +poor girl! I shall go over and see her first thing +tomorrow. I know Rebecca quite well. We get +our milk from there." +</p> + +<p> +"Do," I said. "You'll cheer her up a bit." I +rose as I spoke and peered down the road. +"It's time that car put in an appearance." +</p> + +<p> +"Your car? Where did you leave it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Just down the hill there. It had a +breakdown," I explained. "The man was going to +catch us up." +</p> + +<p> +"I thought I heard a car," she said, "a little +while ago. It was while you were over at the +fire. It didn't come past here. Do you +suppose Menning knew what you came for?" +</p> + +<p> +"Lennox thinks he must have suspected it. +Anyhow he's far enough away by this time." +</p> + +<p> +She looked at me, as I thought, a little uneasily. +</p> + +<p> +"You aren't afraid of Menning?" I exclaimed. +"Far or near, he'll take good enough care to +keep out of anyone's way just now. Well, I'll +go and see if I can find the car. He may have +misunderstood the directions. You might tell +the others if they're looking for me." +</p> + +<p> +As it happened, I had barely gone a dozen +paces up the road before I heard the cheerful +approaching throb of a motor, and a moment +later the car, with Jackson in it, swung into sight. +</p> + +<p> +"I was just coming along to look for you," +I said as he drew up. "I thought you'd missed us." +</p> + +<p> +"Thought the spooks had got me!" He +grinned appreciatively. "No, sir! I just pulled +up the road a bit—didn't know which way you'd +gone. I guess they weren't huntin' company +tonight." He laughed. "Mighty thick these +woods are. I don't know this part of the +country much. Do you get any big animals, round +about?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing bigger than a badger," I said. "Why?" +</p> + +<p> +"There was something crossed my path, coming +up the hill there. It might have been a +dog, now I think of it, but it didn't look like +no dog I've ever seen. Rather high in the +hindquarters, and grayish ... I on'y saw the back +of it. It slunk off in the bushes as I come up." +</p> + +<p> +"There aren't any very big dogs that I know," +I said, "except Mr. Lessing's setter, and that's +generally chained up at night." +</p> + +<p> +"It weren't no setter," said Jackson. +"Weren't the build of a setter. And it weren't no +badger, for I've seen 'em. Low-running, brownish +beasts they are.... Is this the house, sir?" +</p> + +<p> +We drew up outside the bungalow, and I +jumped down to join the others, waiting on the +porch. +</p> + +<p> +"It wasn't anything <i>like</i> a dog, now I think +of it," said Jackson. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap18"></a></p> + +<h3> +XVIII +<br><br> +LENNOX'S STORY +</h3> + +<p> +Lennox's face, when the car had deposited +us once more at our door, expressed utter +chagrin and annoyance. He flung himself down in +the surgery arm-chair and lit a cigar. +</p> + +<p> +"That's what comes of not acting on the +minute," he said. "I had my hand on the man +last night. I tell you, Haverill, you can't drive +plain facts into people's heads. There's +formality and formality, and the end is your man +gets a clear twelve hours to lay his plans and the +game's up." +</p> + +<p> +"Bad luck," I rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +He sat staring moodily down at the carpet. +</p> + +<p> +"While I think of it," I remembered, "I've got +some property of yours. You might as well +have it back." +</p> + +<p> +I pulled out the envelope he had left for me +that morning. Lennox took it without a glance +and thrust it into his pocket. +</p> + +<p> +"Considering that I didn't have the opportunity +to open it," I remarked, "I think you +might let me into the story now." +</p> + +<p> +He pulled out his watch. "Well, I don't +know but what sleep's out of the question, +anyway, tonight. Get the whisky out, Haverill, +there's a good chap, and we'll go into it." +</p> + +<p> +"One moment," I said as I unlocked the +cupboard. "Have you any objection if I fetch +Herrick down?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not in the least." +</p> + +<p> +I roused Herrick accordingly, and he bundled +sleepily into a dressing-gown and joined +us below, where his sleepiness rapidly vanished +in the few moments that it took to grasp the new +turn of events, and the part that Lennox himself +had played in last night's happenings. +</p> + +<p> +Put briefly, this was the story as Lennox put +it to us, gathered round the surgery table in the +chilly half-hour that precedes dawn. +</p> + +<p> +The Menning household, when Lennox first +came here, had consisted of the two +half-brothers, Jake and Aaron, and the old mother, +who kept house for them and helped more or +less in the business. They were of Westphalian +origin, but had settled in this country for two +generations. The mother, according to Lennox, +was a curious survival of the original +peasant stock. Stolid, hard-working, and +uncommunicative, she preserved always a certain +aloofness from her neighbours, a taciturnity that +marked her out even among the Dutch families +about. She had preserved a great deal of her +native superstition and traditions, and was +reputed to have a great knowledge of herbs and +some skill in home doctoring and decoctions, +when she could be induced to use it, by reason +of which the neighbours, ready enough in such +gossip, believed her to have actual powers of +witchcraft. Superstition dies hard, even in a +new country, and there was at all events a +marked unwillingness among them to annoy or +"cross" her in any way. About thirty years ago +she had married a young Pennsylvania +Dutchman, Menning by name, who had deserted her +shortly after. Aaron, their son, had his mother's +characteristics in a modified degree. He was +inclined to be friendly, if not sociable, a good +business man, thrifty but honest-dealing, and +very religious. Jake, the half-brother, was some +years older than Aaron, and, in Lennox's phrase, +a "throw-back." There was considerable mystery +and gossip about his birth. Some said that +he was born before the mother's marriage, some +after. He was certainly only half related to +Aaron, and the wide difference between them +was in curious contrast to their strong physical +resemblance, a result in both cases of the virile +persistence of the mother's peasant type. Jakey +was mentally deficient, but not enough to debar +him from ordinary tasks. He occupied himself +in the huckstering business, and took the wagon +round in turn with Aaron, week and week about. +In many ways he could be trusted, but he was +malicious and cunning, and the bad streak +seemed to predominate with age. Lennox never +considered him safe. There was always the +possibility, in his opinion, of a serious outbreak, +and he had even gone so far as to suggest to +Aaron the advisability of having him put under +definite restraint. At first Aaron had been +disposed to consider the idea favourably, then later, +for no given reason, he changed his mind. His +manner, at about this time, in regard to any +discussion about Jakey, changed also so noticeably +that Lennox supposed there must have been +words between Aaron and the mother about his +(Lennox's) interference in the matter, and that +Aaron had perhaps been naturally induced to +range himself upon the mother's side. Lennox +urged him at least to have his brother medically +examined, but he always met with a dogged +refusal. +</p> + +<p> +"Jakey's all right in the daytime," Aaron +persisted. "He ain't doin' harm to nobody. +Nights we lock him in." +</p> + +<p> +Once only he went so far as to say that if it +became necessary he would take his own steps +in the matter, rather implying a resentment at +outside interference, and Lennox, to avoid +making further bad blood, was forced to let the +matter drop. So things went on till last March, and +the events which led to the finding of Jakey's +body by the creek at Dutchman's Hill. +</p> + +<p> +Lennox saw the body, and there was no doubt +in his mind at the time that death was due to +an epileptic seizure. There were no marks of +any sort on the body. The ground was fairly +soft at the time—a thaw had set in that same +afternoon—but there were no footprints to be +found other than those of the man himself, +leading down to the creek, and the tracks of some +large dog which had evidently passed that way +in the night, sniffed at the body and gone on. +At the word "large dog" I saw Herrick shift +in his chair. +</p> + +<p> +"Do the Mennings keep a dog?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"A watchdog, I believe. Most people do." +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing else was found near the place?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing but this, which I myself happened +on a few days later. Either of the brothers +might have dropped it, or it might have been +dropped by another person altogether. It was +lying some little distance from the creek, beyond +the bridge there. The inspector attached no +particular importance to it. There is a certain +amount of traffic along this road, and there is +no indication that this wasn't dropped by some +passing person a day or two after the body was +found." +</p> + +<p> +He drew from his waistcoat pocket a small +round silver object, slightly larger than a pea. +</p> + +<p> +"Looks like some boy's treasure," I said. +"A button, isn't it?" +</p> + +<p> +"It has been a button," Herrick said. "The +shank has been broken off and it's been +hammered. Well, Lennox, go on." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course there was an inquest," Lennox +said. "They found that the man died during an +epileptic seizure, which carried out my own +conclusions. And now I am coming to the queer +part of my tale. It was Aaron who formally +identified the body. I saw him and spoke with +him at the inquest, and I saw him again the +day after Jakey's funeral." +</p> + +<p> +He paused. +</p> + +<p> +"Six weeks after the inquest, Haverill, I was +walking down the short cut from the Bend, +and I met Jake Menning face to face. I am as +certain of it as that I am sitting here. He made +off without giving me a chance to speak to him. +But that it was Jake, in solid flesh and blood, +I had no shadow of a doubt. +</p> + +<p> +"The next day I went to the house. I asked +for Aaron. The old woman met me. She said +that Aaron was away with the wagon. I asked +when I could see him, and she became evasive. +It seemed that he was very busy, that he was +away a good deal of the time; she could not say +at all when he was likely to be found. +</p> + +<p> +"Her answers, and more particularly her manner, +set me to thinking. I had not seen Aaron +since the day after Jakey's funeral. No one, +so far as I could learn without pushing inquiries +unduly, had seen much of Aaron since the +inquest. His trade had always lain further afield +than the immediate neighbourhood, where most +people raised their own chickens for use, and few +in sufficient quantity to sell. Mrs. Searle had +seen him, certainly, and Mrs. Searle had +remarked a change in him. She said that he was +queer and silent; she thought that the shock of +his brother's death had preyed on his mind. In +her own words, he was 'getting just like Jakey +in his ways.' +</p> + +<p> +"It was about this time that the talk first +began about the haunting of Dutchman's Hill. +I am not a credulous man where ghosts are +concerned, and I scoffed any idea of the +supernatural. One stranger, a pedlar, said that a +'something' had jumped out and chased him to +the bridge, where it stopped. Others declared +that it was the ghost of Jakey that haunted the +place. On top of all this came the—er—the very +singular attacks upon Mr. Lessing. I don't +want to go into Lessing's case now. His own +story was of course untenable, and I strongly +believe that he knew a great deal more than he +chose to tell me at the time—in other words, +that he found amusement in trying, deliberately, +to see how much I would believe. We were +always strongly opposed on certain questions, +though in general I found him a most courteous +and charming man, and I am afraid he was not +above trying, in this matter, to take a rise out +of me, as they say. If he had taken me into +his confidence then, instead of inventing the +ridiculous sort of bogy-tale he did, we should +have been at the truth of this matter much +earlier." +</p> + +<p> +Herrick and I exchanged glances. I fancied +he was about to speak, but on second thoughts +changed his mind. Lennox continued. +</p> + +<p> +"The problem resolved itself into this. If +Jakey was still alive, and I could swear to it +that he was, whose was the body that had been +identified and buried in March, and how was +it that no one, save myself, guessed at his +continued existence? <i>Who was Aaron Menning?</i> +</p> + +<p> +"I tell you, Haverill, the thing became a +nightmare. I had no proof to go upon, nothing but +my own instinct. The more I thought over it, +the more clear it grew to me. The man whose +body had been found at Dutchman's Hill was +not Jakey at all, it was Aaron." +</p> + +<p> +"But——" +</p> + +<p> +"Listen here, Haverill," Lennox said. "I +know what I am saying sounds incredible to +you. But consider for a moment, on what +superficial observations we base our recognition of +people, every day. Remember the very strong +likeness which existed between the two brothers, +even to the scarring and thickening of the skin +by smallpox, which in itself blunts the individuality +of a face. The face of the dead man was +swollen both by the manner of death and the +partial immersion in mud. Remember that +there were no intimate relatives to impose upon, +for the mother undoubtedly knew the truth. +The farmer who found the body identified it +as that of a huckster named Menning who had +called upon him the week before. Aaron was +away from home that night, and he did not +return with the wagon till the afternoon. It +was the mother who first identified the body as +that of Jakey, and the news was already spread +when I arrived on the scene. Aaron appeared +at the inquest, but with the exception of myself +there were not three men there who knew him at +all intimately, or who could have sworn to his +actual identity unless they saw the two brothers +side by side. Both Aaron and the mother +opposed the inquest strongly, and the neighbours +told me that she would let no one help her in +preparing the body for burial. She had always +kept herself rather aloof, as I said, and at the +time her refusal did not strike me as peculiar. +</p> + +<p> +"Given the clue, the thing was easy enough +to construct. I believe myself it was fear of +his brother's placing him under restraint that +first suggested the attack. He must have +concealed himself in the tree near the footbridge, +knowing that Aaron had an errand in the village +and would pass that way, and so sprung out upon +him. The impact of his body bore them both +down to the edge of the stream. There was +no struggle. The shock brought on the seizure +in which Aaron died, and Jakey, leaving him +there, had sufficient cunning either to follow +the stream or swing himself up by the bridge, +and so avoid leaving any traces. He returned +to the house, and with his mother concocted the +story of Aaron's absence with the wagon, +harnessed the horse and made off ready to return +the following afternoon, when the dead man's +identity would have been safely established. +People might have suspected Jakey of killing +Aaron, but no one would suspect Aaron of +killing Jakey. +</p> + +<p> +"I think now that he was on his guard against +me at the inquest, and that his suspicion must +have deepened as time went on. I was morally +convinced that the man was a dangerous homicidal +lunatic, but I had no evidence to convict +him. He would have been cunning enough to +defeat me, since no one would have credited my +story. Aaron was known and respected. It +would have been folly to bring any hasty charge +against him. Convinced that he already +mistrusted me, and that my only safety was in +disarming his suspicion, I took the only course +possible. I determined to go away for a time, and +I took the precaution of letting it be supposed +that I went for my health. I wanted Menning +to think that he had driven me away, and I +believe I succeeded. Up to last night he had no +suspicion of my identity with Crowfoot. I +counted on his relaxing his caution once I was +out of the way, and I was right. +</p> + +<p> +"Freeman must have suspected something of +the truth, since that Rebecca swore she had seen +Jakey's ghost near the mill-dam, and if it had +not been for Freeman's well-meant imprudence +we should have had Jakey under lock and key +at this moment. He got suspicious of Freeman, +laid up for him last night, and pushed him over +the sluice. I heard Freeman's cry and the +splash, and guessed instinctively what had +happened. It was then that Jakey's mania came +out. He disappeared when Freeman fell, but +in a paroxysm of rage and fear came back and +tried to pull the gate open on us while we were +both down there. I had to fire on him in defence, +and he made off. He had taken the alarm, +however, and instead of waiting the one more day +I had intended, I judged it best to post straight +off and lay my facts as I knew them before the +sheriff then and there. The rest of course you +know." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you had no intention of going to +Europe?" I asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Not in the least. A friend posted my note +from Queenstown, a wise precaution, since +Menning would undoubtedly hear of it through the +postmaster's gossip. I went to the Sliefers' +because they were near enough to the Bend to +enable me to carry out a few investigations +without arousing too much interest, and also +because they happened to be about the +only people in the village whom I never attended +professionally, and they would therefore be less +likely to recognize me. You were the only +person I was afraid of, Haverill, and you I had to +chance. We spent only a few hours together +before I left, and before that we hadn't met for +years; it was only my voice that troubled me, +and there I took a leaf out of Jakey's book. +Mr. Herrick would make a better detective than you. +He played me a neat trick over that revolver +last night!" +</p> + +<p> +Herrick smiled. "You must admit that things +looked ugly for you! Now I see why you were +so reluctant to be dragged up to the house that +morning." +</p> + +<p> +"My old training in college theatricals came +in useful anyway!" He looked at his watch. +"Give me another of those cigars of which you +are so lavish, Haverill, and I'll turn in. I'm +dog-tired, and there's plenty before me tomorrow, +yet." +</p> + +<p> +He betook himself with a blanket to the +dining-room sofa, to get a few hours' sleep. The +first violet light of dawn was already filtering +between the curtains, and Herrick stood up +abruptly and extinguished the lamp. +</p> + +<p> +"Lord," he said, "it's stuffy in here! Well, +Austin, what do you make of it all?" +</p> + +<p> +"It may be true," I said. "It throws sufficient +doubt anyway for the arrest of this man. They +might prove manslaughter. Lennox's idea evidently +is that if he can be once arrested on this +charge they can have him medically examined, +and the whole truth will come out." +</p> + +<p> +"Exactly." He walked to the window, pulling +aside the curtains, and threw up the sash. +The clean fresh air of the dawn, faintly cold, +swept past him into the room. "Austin, what +points struck you particularly in this story?" +</p> + +<p> +"If he really saw Jakey that disposes of the +ghost tales. Only one doesn't know..." +</p> + +<p> +"His doubts about his own judgment, in the +earlier case, weakens this," Herrick +supplemented. "I agree. He seems certain at one +moment and uncertain at another. But he is +more positive, I take it, on that point, than on +any other. It was <i>apparently</i> Jakey's body, +it was <i>apparently</i> Aaron at the inquest, but it +was definitely Jakey himself whom he saw and +recognized later." +</p> + +<p> +"Jakey is alive. Whether Aaron was actually +killed, or whether Jakey in some extraordinary +way came to life again.... There have been +cases." +</p> + +<p> +"There have been cases," Herrick said. "The +inquest was held the next day, and no one +apparently saw the body after the inquest. +People have been buried alive before now. And we +must remember that Lennox, for all the skill +and ingenuity he has brought to bear in this +matter afterwards, has only the experience of +the average country practitioner. You know +what that's worth." +</p> + +<p> +"It seems to me," I said, grappling with an +idea which had somehow forced itself upon me +all through Lennox's narrative, "that—I don't +want to criticize unduly—but I do feel that +Lennox's tale has been more evolved to fit +existing facts than suggested by them. He seems +to me to be trying to convince himself just as +much as us. And——" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes?" said Herrick. +</p> + +<p> +I hesitated. +</p> + +<p> +"I—well, hang it all, Herrick, I saw the man +before he left, and whatever the cause, or +however temporary the effect, I am pretty sure that +the story he told us tonight is not sufficient to +account for the state of nerves he was in then. +You saw how touchy he was about Lessing?" +</p> + +<p> +Herrick nodded. +</p> + +<p> +"Lessing said once that Lennox only cared +for things he could stick a pin into and label." +</p> + +<p> +"And unless I am much mistaken," said Herrick +quietly, "it will take a bolder man than +Lennox to label the real truth of this business. +However, Austin, we'll drop that part of it for +the moment. There are one or two points I +want to recall to you particularly." +</p> + +<p> +"Well?" +</p> + +<p> +"They are these." He spoke deliberately. +"The character of Menning's mother. She is +important. The rather curious isolation in which +the family seem always to have kept themselves. +Aaron's sudden change of mind about having +Jakey put under restraint. And ... the two +other details to which Lennox himself seems to +attach the least importance. One is that of the +footprints, presumably of a dog—a large +dog—noticed near the spot where Menning's body was +found." +</p> + +<p> +"And the other?" +</p> + +<p> +"The other," said Herrick, "I have here in my +hand, and to me it provides the most significant +clue in the whole case." +</p> + +<p> +He opened his hand, and I saw lying on the +palm the battered silver button that had been +picked up on Dutchman's Hill. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap19"></a></p> + +<h3> +XIX +<br><br> +THE MILL DAM +</h3> + +<p> +I could get nothing further from Herrick just +then. He went back to his room, but not to +sleep, for I could hear him pacing up and down +overhead. For myself, I dozed fitfully in the +surgery arm-chair, and when I finally opened +my eyes with a start it was to find the room +filled with sunlight and Herrick standing over +me, fully dressed, a cup of steaming coffee in +his hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Wake up, Austin," he said. "I've stolen a +march on Mrs. Searle. It's hot, if it isn't +otherwise drinkable." +</p> + +<p> +I rubbed my eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"Where's Lennox?" +</p> + +<p> +"Sleeping the sleep of the just. By the look +of him he won't wake up till midday. That's +the reward of an easy conscience for +you—— 'Something accomplished, something done.' Which +reminds me. Are you using your motorcycle today?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't think so." I drank the coffee—it +was strong and scalding hot, and it pulled me +together. "Why, do you want it?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'd like it for today, yes." +</p> + +<p> +"Sure." I looked at him curiously. "Have +you got something in mind?" +</p> + +<p> +"Only a little tour of investigation. You +needn't look injured, Austin! Just something +I want to check up on. Are you going over to +Sliefer's today?" +</p> + +<p> +"Later on. I've got two calls in the village." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, if you see the Lessings tell them I'll +be over tomorrow—or tonight if I get back in +time." +</p> + +<p> +We got the cycle out without rousing Pete, +and I watched Herrick off down the road. When +he had gone I lit my pipe and set out for a little +stroll until such time as the household should +be awake. +</p> + +<p> +There had been a heavy fall of dew, and the +weeds by the roadside were drenched and +silvered. Spider webs like jewel-work upon the +brambles. I was reminded of the first time I +had driven over to the bungalow, early in the +summer, on just such a morning as this, and of +how little thought had been in my mind then of +what I should find at my journey's end. To me, +then, these far stretching woods, dense and +close-grown, the hollow with its rank growth of +teeming insect life, the little creek that followed +threadlike among the emerald mosses and tufts +of sedge, suggested nothing more than the idle +peace and pleasure of a summer's holiday. I +had envied whoever lived here all the year round. +These cool depths of shadow, with the freckled +at nothing more dreadful than the tragedy of +play of sunlight through the branches, hinted +weasel and rabbit, of hawk and thrush. Now +their aspect was to me indefinably changed. I +felt them sinister, secretive, their peace a mere +deceptive veil for the evil that lurked beneath. +</p> + +<p> +What was the secret that overshadowed the +place? What had Herrick meant by his insistence +upon the silver button and those queer +footprints by the cedar where Aaron had met +his death? Did Lennox's story after all explain +anything? I felt that it did not and yet I felt, +in a strange, unexplained way, that somehow, +in connection with the Mennings, and the +Menning homestead, loathsome and sinister, was to +be found the answer to our whole problem. +But how? +</p> + +<p> +Retracing my steps, I reached the house to +find smoke curling cheerfully from the chimney +and Lennox, contrary to Herrick's prophecy, +dressed and on the porch. Mrs. Searle had +breakfast ready, bacon, buckwheat cakes and +coffee which obliterated the lingering taste of +the decoction Herrick had pressed upon me before starting out. +</p> + +<p> +Lennox was not very communicative. I think +he was still inwardly chagrined by the failure +of last night's expedition. +</p> + +<p> +After breakfast Pete hitched the mare and I +set out on my rounds. The news of the fire +had already spread. Everyone was talking +about it, and from what I could gather no one +had any sympathy over it, unless it was for the +old woman now rendered houseless. The current +belief was that Menning, heavily insured, +had fired the place himself. There was even a +suggestion that he had intended the old woman to +perish with the house. Disaster works strangely +in loosening people's tongues, and I gathered +that though the supposed Aaron had outwardly +enjoyed the respect of the community there was +inwardly very little liking lost between him and +his neighbours. At all events they were ready +enough now to speak of his queerness, his +surliness, the way the farm was kept—in itself a +sufficient ground of condemnation in a +hard-working neighbourhood—and above all of the +way he had, of late months, neglected and +ill-treated his old mother. Odds and ends of +scandal, restrained up to now I imagined through +a lurking fear of Menning himself, found free +tongue. But in all this talk there was no clear +idea as yet of the real reason for the sheriff's +visit. Menning was "wanted" for something, +but no one quite knew what, and gossip confined +itself so far to dark hints and speculations which +fell very wide of the real mark. +</p> + +<p> +I reached the Sliefers' house about midday. +Freeman was progressing favorably, though not +yet out of danger. Mrs. Sliefer pressed me to +eat dinner with them, and over the meal the +talk turned naturally on the excitement of the +night before. Mrs. Sliefer was very definite +in her opinion of the Menning household, almost +as vehement as old Paddy had been that day I +talked to him of his neighbours. +</p> + +<p> +"If there was ever call for a place to be +burned," she declared, "it was that one, though +I ain't one for wishing ill to my neighbours +without cause. But there's a bad streak in that +family an' always has been. The old woman's +grown feeble of late and I'm sorry enough for +her, poor soul, by all I hear, but there was a day +when I'd 'a crossed the road sooner than pass +the time of day with her, and so would many +another. I never believed all these ignorant tales +of old Ma Menning bein' a witch, for there ain't +no witches and we well know it, but there was +something about her that wasn't like other folks, +and though we was neighbours in a way, she +never took to me nor I to her. Things did get +better in the two years Jakey was away, an' then +it did seem like Aaron had a chance to take hold +an' run things decent, till he come back again. +And after his death one would have thought +there'd been a turn for the better, but it didn't +last. I guess the bad streak was in the whole +family, an' after Jakey died I suppose it preyed +on Aaron's mind, in a way, an' he got to goin' the +same road as his brother." +</p> + +<p> +It was on my tongue to mention the truth, +but I checked myself in time. Evidently the +police hoped to gain something by keeping the +real facts dark, at least until after Jakey's +arrest. +</p> + +<p> +After dinner I drove round, by way of the +Bend, to the Lessings' bungalow. The Menning +place was a mere charred ruin, except for +the outhouses which stood empty and deserted. +The few remaining chickens—Menning had sold +out the greater part of his stock a few days +before the fire, which was another reason why +his neighbours thought it premeditated—had +been taken elsewhere; the cow, filthy and gaunt +from weeks of neglect, poor brute, was grazing +hungrily in a small stony pasture adjoining, +thankful to be at liberty. +</p> + +<p> +Old Paddy, with a greasy, old velvet cap on +and his feet in slashed shoes, was leaning over +his fence-railing, smoking his black pipe. I +asked about Menning's mother. +</p> + +<p> +"The old woman, she's took an' cleared out. +Scared er Aaron, I guess. She got a wheelbarrer +an' loaded her bits o' truck on it, an' carted it +up to that little empty shack back off the road +yonder, what belongs to Scholl. Reckon the +Scholls don't mind her usin' it. She wouldn't +have no help neither—carted the lot herself, +in two journeys, an' I'll say she's still pretty +spry on her feet fur an old lady, though she +does look so feeble. My darter, she was sorry +fur the old soul, an' she gives her some potatoes +an' a bag o' flour, but she didn't git so much +as a thank you for it. Jest chucked 'em on the +barrer an' went off. Kinder dazed that night, +she was, but she come round pretty quick once +the excitement was over." +</p> + +<p> +He paused to spit, with precision, at a white +stone by the fence rail. +</p> + +<p> +"No one ain't seen nothin' of Aaron." +</p> + +<p> +"No," I said. +</p> + +<p> +"Guess they won't, neither. He's cleared out +for good, by the looks of it." +</p> + +<p> +"Maybe it's well." +</p> + +<p> +"No one round here ain't grumblin'. It's a +case o' good riddance. I don't trust Aaron. My +darter, she ain't lettin' her young 'un run through +the woods, neither. He'd orter be jailed an' +done with it." +</p> + +<p> +I found Mary and Lessing on the porch. They +hailed me cheerfully, and I hitched the mare +in the shade and joined them. +</p> + +<p> +"Poor old Crowfoot," said Lessing. "I don't +think the arm of the law was best pleased at +being fetched out on a wild goose chase last +night. It's my private opinion that Lennox has +solaced his loneliness by reading up on detective +novels. I always thought he had some bats in +his belfry. Did he tell you anything more last +night?" +</p> + +<p> +"Quite a lot." +</p> + +<p> +I told them the story as briefly as I could. +</p> + +<p> +"Lennox is crazy," Dick said when I had +finished. "The thing doesn't hang together. +And when he gets to a point where he can't +trust his judgment as to the identity of a man +in one case, how can he trust it in another? +What did Herrick think?" +</p> + +<p> +"He didn't say definitely." +</p> + +<p> +"So like Herrick! What?" +</p> + +<p> +"He seemed to lay more stress on the dogs' +footprints and the button Lennox picked up +than on anything else. Oddly enough, someone +else spoke of dogs, now I think of it." And I +told him what the chauffeur had said last night. +</p> + +<p> +"Queer," said Lessing. "You'd think he'd +know a dog when he saw one. I'd like to have a +look at that button." +</p> + +<p> +"Herrick has it." +</p> + +<p> +"He has..." Lessing was silent a moment. +"Even if Jakey did kill Aaron, and Aaron is +really his brother—hang it all, the thing's so +mixed—I don't see that that gets us any further +on. Does Lennox think he's at the back of +everything? What's he playing at?" +</p> + +<p> +"He was at the back of Rebecca's scare, and +that business of Freeman. If Freeman were only +well enough to speak.... I don't know that he +could tell us much then, that we haven't found +out for ourselves." +</p> + +<p> +"Grant that Jakey did kill his brother, and +has succeeded in putting it over. He was at the +bottom of all these Dutchman's Hill scares, and +that business with Rebecca. Freeman found out +something, and he laid for Freeman ... and +got him. That doesn't explain the cyclist affair, +nor what happened to me." +</p> + +<p> +"And it doesn't explain another thing, either," +said Mary, breaking in for the first time. "It +doesn't explain what the one point was that +Lennox himself was unwilling to face, what it +was he tried to avoid by ridiculous explanations +that wouldn't satisfy a child. I don't mean +recently, I mean further back, almost in the +beginning, the second time he was here to attend +Dick." She turned to her brother. "Perhaps +I haven't told you this before. But it did strike +me at the time, and afterwards I've been thinking +of it more and more. +</p> + +<p> +"I was standing out here on the porch, +wondering whether I could leave you with Kate and +slip over to Lennox's house, or whether I could +get hold of anyone to send, when Lennox himself +came by, driving. I ran out to stop him and +tell him what had happened. He pulled up as +soon as he saw me, before I had time to call out, +and I tell you if I ever saw a man frightened it +was then. He was afraid, and he was afraid +before he saw me, or even knew what I had to +say. Something had happened, something that +gave him a shock, before he came up the road +there. He tried to pass it off, but I'm not a +fool; I know when a person is just puzzled, +and I know when he is afraid, and I tell you that +Lennox was afraid. And I'd like to know just +what it was that frightened him." +</p> + +<p> +"Where was he coming from?" Lessing asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Down the road here, the way Austin came +just now. He came from the Bend." +</p> + +<p> +"From Menning's place." +</p> + +<p> +"It might have been. I don't know. He +didn't say and I didn't ask him. But something, +that morning, had happened to upset him before +he got here. And it was as if he knew—or at +least expected, what he was going to find." +</p> + +<p> +"Did you ask him?" +</p> + +<p> +"I said something about it. He told me he'd +been up all night on a case some miles away, +that he'd only left at daybreak to drive back, +and that he felt all in. But it was something +more than that, I feel certain, to have thrown +him into the state he was in." +</p> + +<p> +"I shall ask him tonight," I said. "If he's +keeping anything back——" +</p> + +<p> +"Ask him!" said Mary. "Ask him, and get +the truth! You can tell him just what I said." +</p> + +<p> +I had promised to look in at the Sliefers' +again, later in the evening, and instead of doing +so on my way back, Mary proposed that I +should walk across with her, after tea, while +Lessing got some letters written. +</p> + +<p> +"I want some cream for supper," she said, +"and I want to see Rebecca too. I meant to go +this morning. If you don't mind the walk we'll +take Leo along. He hasn't had a run today yet." +</p> + +<p> +She called the setter and he came bounding +up, glad enough of the prospect of a walk. +</p> + +<p> +"Poor old Leo!" Mary said. "He doesn't +get half enough exercise. We'll take the leash, +Austin, if you don't mind. There's a collie at +the farm and the two are sworn enemies. I +always have to fasten him if I go there." +</p> + +<p> +I put the leash in my pocket and we set off +through the woods by a short cut that brought +us out eventually upon the cart-track near the +old saw-mill. On the other side of this road +the Sliefers' land began, and only a couple of +pasture fields, with low snake-fences, separated +us from the farm. Leo had dropped behind after +we passed the mill, and as we stopped by the +fence to wait for him we saw a woman coming +along the path. She wore a faded check cotton +dress and a sunbonnet that almost hid her face, +and she was carrying a basket filled with chips, +evidently gathered near the mill. As she drew +near I caught a flash of very keen eyes, set in +a dark wrinkled face, directed upon us in a +glance that was by no means friendly. +</p> + +<p> +Mary stepped forward and spoke to her, and +I saw her slip something into the old woman's +hand. The gnarled fingers closed on it +unwillingly; she muttered something and passed on. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you know her?" I asked. +</p> + +<p> +"It's old Mrs. Menning," Mary said. "Poor +old soul! She's crotchety, but I can't help feeling +sorry for her. Is it true they are sending her +to the poorhouse?" +</p> + +<p> +"I've no idea. Old Paddy Nevill told me +she'd moved her things up to some little empty +shack near her old place. I suppose they'll let +her stay there till something can be arranged." +</p> + +<p> +I watched the bent, dragging figure out of +sight. As Paddy had said, she covered the +ground fairly spryly, for all her feebleness of +gait. It was my first acquaintance with this +woman to whose personality Herrick had particularly +drawn my attention the night before. If +Lennox were right, she had played an almost +incredibly cunning part throughout, even if her +brain had not itself evolved the whole plot. +</p> + +<p> +"You'd think she could find chips nearer than +the saw-mill," Mary said. "It's a good walk +from the Nevills' place, if she's near there. I +wouldn't wonder if the old body were unhinged +by the fire altogether. She's never friendly +at her best, but she looked quite queer just now. +Did you notice how she was muttering to herself?" +</p> + +<p> +I let down the bars and we passed through +into the field. +</p> + +<p> +"Austin," Mary said, as we picked our way +over the boulder-strewn pasture, "do you know +that I've got a confession to make, and it's +worrying me." +</p> + +<p> +I smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"Anything very dreadful?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't just know," she said. "It's about last +night. You know I stayed out on the porch while +you were all over at the fire. Well, it was while +I was sitting there, about a quarter of an hour +after you went, I saw Menning come up by the +road. I don't think he even saw me. He was +going at a sort of shambling trot, and he never +looked up when he passed the house. I am sure +it was he, though." +</p> + +<p> +"And you never told us!" I exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"I knew you'd be angry, but I couldn't help +it. I didn't know about this whole story then, +and—and I hate the idea of any man being +hunted that way, no matter what he's done. +I thought he might have some sort of chance to +get away, and that's why I didn't say anything +last night, even to Dick!" +</p> + +<p> +"Which way was he going?" +</p> + +<p> +"Toward the hill. Your chauffeur must surely +have met him. That's what I couldn't make +out." +</p> + +<p> +"He saw no one at all. The man may have +turned off into the woods when he saw the car. +I suppose you know what the sheriff would say +to this?" +</p> + +<p> +"Compounding a felony!" Mary laughed. +"Anyway he never asked me, so I didn't have +to tell any lies about it. Only after what you +said last night it worried me, and I thought +I'd better own up. Now if he is caught it won't +be on my conscience that I had a direct hand in it." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, woman!" I exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"You'd have done the same in my case," she +retorted. "Besides, I wasn't supposed to know. +You never told me anything." +</p> + +<p> +"You are sure it was Menning?" +</p> + +<p> +"Quite sure. I had left the house door open, +and he passed right into the light. I wondered +why he was going away from the fire instead +of toward it, and I thought at first he might be +going to get more help. I didn't know then. +He hadn't been there all along." +</p> + +<p> +We reached the farm, and I left her below +while I saw my patient. Either I was longer +than I thought, or we must have loitered +unconsciously on our way over, for when I joined +her again on the porch the light was already +fading. Then there was a delay about the cream. +Rebecca had to fetch it, and while she was gone +Mary turned to me. +</p> + +<p> +"This farm is still bewitched," she said. "It's +the cream-pans now. Rebecca swears that the +milk has gone, these last few nights. Last night +she set out three pans in the spring-house and +this morning one of them was two-thirds empty. +I suspect cats, but anyway the problem takes +Rebecca's mind off her other trouble, poor girl. +Here she is. Can you spare this, Rebecca?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's a bit scant, Miss Lessing, but it's the +best I can do. We'll be short for churning this +week, as it is. Whatever ails the milk I don't +know! I've never had it go before." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, it isn't witches' work;" Mary smiled. +"They turn the milk, you know, Rebecca, they +don't steal it! I'd keep an eye on the cat. If +you'll take Leo a moment, Austin, till we're out +of the grounds, I'll carry the pail—no, it isn't +heavy, and I don't trust men anyway. They +spill everything. Good night, Rebecca!" +</p> + +<p> +"Carry your old cream yourself," I retorted. +"I won't help you—not after that. And the way +I've condoned your offences, too! Come on, +Leo! Can I let him loose here, do you think?" +</p> + +<p> +"Wait till we're quite clear of the house. He +had a dreadful fight here once. It'll be all right +now. We'd better take the path along the dam; +it's a little shorter." +</p> + +<p> +We followed the footpath along which they +had carried Freeman that night to the house. +Given any other time and place, I should have +been tempted to do my best in prolonging this +stroll, but I had none too pleasant associations +with the place and its surroundings, and with +twilight closing rapidly upon us I was in no mind +to loiter. A stagnant weedy smell rose from the +dam, a gloomy stretch of water with enclosing +trees that darkened it still more effectually. +Frogs croaked in monotonous chorus from the +weeds at the edge and the midges were thick. +In the end Mary had to give in ignominiously, +and I carried the pail while she fought their +attacks off with a handkerchief. +</p> + +<p> +It was here that Rebecca and her sweetheart +used to walk of an evening, and I wondered at +their choice of a trysting-place. +</p> + +<p> +"It's romantic," said Mary, "in a way. Can't +you imagine this the deserted moat, with the +ruined castle of Lord Thingummy in the +background? I am sure that Rebecca reads Laura +Jean Libbey on the sly. What spot more +suggestive of lovers' vows and maidens palely +loitering! Rebecca's too healthy not to be +romantic at her age." +</p> + +<p> +"Romance?" I said. "Fiddlesticks! The +Sliefers ought to have this place drained if they +aren't going to work the mill any more. As a +plain medical man I have no use for picturesque +sheets of water that smell bad after sunset." +</p> + +<p> +"So you'd sacrifice all this——" she waved +the hand that was not occupied in keeping +nudges at bay—"and plant cabbages on it!" +</p> + +<p> +"Why cabbages?" +</p> + +<p> +"Aren't they the symbol of all that is practical?" +</p> + +<p> +"Including myself!" I snapped. I was getting +badly bitten, and with no opportunity for redress. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I didn't say that!" She stopped short. +"Did you see that big fish jump just then? +Right beyond the pond-lilies there. This place +must be full of them." +</p> + +<p> +"Carp, most likely. It's pretty deep up at +this end." +</p> + +<p> +She stopped to watch the circle widen and +disappear, leaving the water black. "Austin +... do you suppose I ought to have spoken +about Menning before?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know that it matters. They'll get +him anyhow." +</p> + +<p> +There was no good in mere speculation, and I +didn't want to enlarge on the subject of Menning. +She had come into contact with sufficient +ugliness this summer already. "It's more than +probable that he has cleared out altogether by +this time. In any case, until we know, I think +it would be better that you kept near the house +unless one of us is with you. There's no good +running any risks." +</p> + +<p> +We had passed the mill and were just turning +into the little path that would bring us to the +road near the bungalow, when Lessing met us. +</p> + +<p> +"I thought you two would never turn up," +he said. "I'm dying of hunger. How's the +patient, Austin?" +</p> + +<p> +"Getting on. You can carry the pail if you +want to work. Where's that dog got to?" +</p> + +<p> +I had released the setter some little way back, +and he had kept within sight nearly all the way. +Missing him now, I turned to whistle, and saw +Leo, a pale shadow in the dusk, nosing eagerly +about the scattered logs that lay in the clearing +near the mill. Lessing called him several times +by name, sharply, but he paid no attention. +</p> + +<p> +"Got a rabbit, most likely. Wait a minute. +I'll soon fetch him out of that." +</p> + +<p> +He walked back the few paces to the clearing, +and Mary sat down at the edge of the path with +a little sigh of resignation. I offered her a +cigarette, and for some minutes we smoked in silence, +listening for her brother's step. Presently Mary +stood up. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not going to wait here all evening! We'll +go on to the house and let him catch up to us." +</p> + +<p> +We had nearly reached the bungalow before +Lessing overtook us. He was holding Leo by a +handkerchief knotted through his collar. The +dog came unwillingly, cringing against his master's +legs, the hair along his spine bristling and +his ears kid back. +</p> + +<p> +"Why, look at that!" Mary exclaimed. "I've +never seen him act that way before. You haven't +been beating him, Dick?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'd like to!" Lessing stooped to take a fresh +grip on the dog's collar. "Be quiet, you brute! +You aren't going back there now." +</p> + +<p> +Mary patted the setter's head. "Poor old +boy! Did he get a rat, and wouldn't they let +him have it! Was it a good rat, Leo?" +</p> + +<p> +But the dog only twisted impatiently from her +touch, his head turned backwards and his nose +working. +</p> + +<p> +"It was a darn good rat," said Lessing, "but +he won't have it now. Go open the shed door, +Mary, till I get him in." +</p> + +<p> +She threw open the door of the tool-shed, and +Lessing thrust the dog inside, pushing him in +with his foot, and fastened the latch. +</p> + +<p> +"That's that! Aren't you staying for supper, +Austin?" +</p> + +<p> +"Wish I could! I must get the mare back, +and I want to be there when Herrick gets in." +</p> + +<p> +I untied the mare and backed her around. +Mary was standing on the porch. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you notice you can smell that stagnant +water at the dam? We seem to get it in whiffs, +every once in a while. I noticed it very strongly +last night, sitting out here. I wonder the Sliefers +can stand it, living as close as they do." +</p> + +<p> +There was a slight taint on the air. As Mary +said, it seemed to come in whiffs. It might have +been the dam, but it carried my mind back, as +a smell will do, to some vague recollection I +could not quite place. +</p> + +<p> +"There's a lot of rotting vegetation there. +Maybe it isn't so bad at their end. Sometimes +you smell things much more at a distance." +</p> + +<p> +"It just comes and goes. I don't notice it +now. You'll be over this evening?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'll bring Herrick along if he's back." +</p> + +<p> +I paused, held by a vague trouble in her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"You aren't worried, Mary?" +</p> + +<p> +"Worried? No. I just feel ... restless. +It's the sort of feeling you get before a storm. +As if we were all waiting for something, and you +don't know what." +</p> + +<p> +"You've been upset about this Menning affair." +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't that. I don't know what it is. The +place, maybe ... I always liked woods before, +and now I feel as if I should never like them +again." Her grave clear eyes held mine. "Austin, +I wish I knew. If only ... sometimes I +almost wish we'd never come to this place at +all." +</p> + +<p> +"Mary, you don't really wish that?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, I don't. I ought to, but I can't. But +... I do wish we were all away—out of +here—somewhere else." +</p> + +<p> +"We shall be, soon enough." I was thinking +of the end of my holiday, the breaking-up of a +summer that, if it had brought danger and ugliness +and all but tragedy, had brought also something +infinitely precious into my life—something +I was far from ready to lose. +</p> + +<p> +"The summer has done Kate good, anyway. +We had a letter from her this morning." +</p> + +<p> +"Where is she?" I knew that Mrs. Lessing +had left a few days before, to stay with some +friends. +</p> + +<p> +"On Long Island. A place on the Sound. +We'll probably join her there in a couple of +weeks. I wish you could come—you and Jack +both. I think the sea air would blow sense into +all of us!" She laughed. "I'm talking like an +old woman, and I've got Dick's supper to get and +nothing ready! Well, we'll see you tonight." +</p> + +<p> +"Would you rather I stayed?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nonsense! You'll begin to think I'm developing +nerves, next!" +</p> + +<p> +She waved her hand as I climbed into the +buggy. Gathering up the reins, I turned the +mare's head homeward. It was already nearly +dark, but I could still see the road before me. +Was it presage, or only the desire for Mary's +company that made me wish, even before I had +turned the corner by Dutchman's Hill, that I +had after all accepted Lessing's invitation and +stayed on? +</p> + +<p> +As I reached the point where the road dipped +to the hollow it seemed to me that I could smell +once more that queer unplaceable odour of which +Mary had spoken. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap20"></a></p> + +<h3> +XX +<br><br> +WHAT WE FOUND IN THE SAW-MILL +</h3> + +<p> +Herrick had not yet returned when I reached +the house. Lennox was just sitting down to +supper, in which I joined him. While we were +lingering over our coffee I remembered what +Mary had said that morning, and asked him +point-blank about it. +</p> + +<p> +He gave me a curious look before replying: +</p> + +<p> +"So Mary Lessing told you that, did she? +Well, I give her credit for observation. I remember +that morning perfectly. She was quite right; +something <i>had</i> happened." +</p> + +<p> +He paused to light a cigar over the +lamp-chimney before saying: "Shall we go into the +surgery, Haverill?" +</p> + +<p> +I followed him in, leaving the dining-room to +Mrs. Searle, and closed the door between us, +while Lennox threw himself back into the +armchair and smoked for a few moments in silence. +</p> + +<p> +"I've told you, Haverill, that between one +thing and another my nerves were in a pretty +unreliable state early this summer. I mention +that now, because I still think it had a certain +bearing on what happened. When Mary Lessing +stopped me that morning in the road it was +just a case of one shock on top of another." +</p> + +<p> +"Then——" +</p> + +<p> +"Wait a minute," Lennox said. "If I tell this +thing I've got to tell it my own way. I'll tell +you just what happened and I haven't got any +explanation of it at all. You can take it or leave +it. And you'll understand that I don't even +claim to be telling you facts. The whole thing +might have been just an impression in my own +mind. That's what I want to make clear, regardless +of any effect it may have had on me at the +time. +</p> + +<p> +"I had been out on an all-night case. I was +physically tired, and through a particular anxiety +in this instance, just about all in. I had a +seven-mile drive home, and I could almost have +fallen asleep there in the buggy. I had left my +patient out of danger, and coming back I +remembered that Mrs. Searle wanted a couple of +chickens from Aaron and that I'd told her the day +before I would stop in some time and get them. +It was very little after daybreak, but I chanced +the Mennings being early risers and turned out +of my way to go by the Bend. There was smoke +coming from the chimney, so I got out and +knocked at the door, and the old woman opened +it. I guess she was just dressing; she looked +half asleep, and she told me Aaron wasn't up yet, +but that the chickens were ready, and she'd get +them for me if I didn't mind waiting a minute. +</p> + +<p> +"I stood about outside. It was a chilly +morning, and a bit foggy. I guess I had my mind +more on a cup of hot coffee than anything else, +and I wondered if the old woman would give me +some if I asked for it when she came back, +though I'd be needing coffee pretty badly before +I'd drink it in that house. You knew the +Menning place, before it was burned?" +</p> + +<p> +I nodded. +</p> + +<p> +"There are a lot of tumble-down outbuildings +there where they used to keep the chickens he +bought, and one in particular—I don't know if +you noticed it—a sort of lean-to near the open +wagon shed, painted green. I don't know what +it was built for, but it had a door and a square +window-hole, high up, about the height of a +man's head. I don't suppose the whole floor +space inside would be more than about eight +foot square, about the size of a calf-pen, and I +shouldn't wonder if that was what it was. I'd +walked over to it because I wanted to get my +pipe started, out of the breeze. The door was +shut, and I'm certain there wasn't anything +moving in there, or I'd have heard it. +</p> + +<p> +"I'd struck a match, and was just bending over +to draw on my pipe when something shot past +me. It seemed to come out of the uncleared +patch of woods back of the sheds. I didn't get +more than a half glimpse of it, and I can't even +tell you what it looked like, except that it was +biggish, and it seemed to shamble on all fours, +and it panted, the way an animal does that's +been running, and it <i>smelt</i> like an animal too—I +seemed to get a whiff of it as it went past. It +came by me so close I could almost have touched +it, and flung itself straight at that window-hole +and slithered through, and I could hear the thud +of its body on the inside. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm a short man. That window-hole was well +above the level of my head. My first thought +was to pull myself up and look through, and +then—well, you can put it down to what you +like, but the thing had given me such a queer +turn when it shot past, like cold water down my +spine, and I believe if I could have touched that +window I wouldn't have had the physical +strength to pull myself up and look through. +Instead I backed away and just stood there, +staring. The door was tight shut. It had all +happened in such a flash that I began to wonder, +then, if I'd imagined the whole thing. I might +have stood there for a couple of minutes, though +it seemed to me longer, and then suddenly the +door was flung wide open and Aaron himself—or +as I know now, Jakey—walked out. +</p> + +<p> +"The door opened outward, and I could see +straight past into the shed. There was a heap +of broken harness and some rags lying in one +corner, and except for that the place was as bare +as my hand. +</p> + +<p> +"I daresay I must have looked queer—I know +I felt it—for Menning gave me a pretty surly +look. He asked me what I wanted, and I told +him I'd stopped for the chickens. He said they +weren't ready, that he'd bring them over, but +just at that minute his mother came out from +the house with them in her hand, and I tell you +I was glad enough to grab those chickens and +drive off. I didn't want to ask questions or to +stop near the place." +</p> + +<p> +"This thing—what did you think it looked like?" +</p> + +<p> +"I can't even tell you. It—it didn't look like +anything." +</p> + +<p> +"But it ran?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, it ran. It's no good trying to tell you +what my impression was, any more than I have +done." +</p> + +<p> +"Do you suppose Menning kept something +shut up there?" +</p> + +<p> +"If he did, where was it when he opened the +door? I tell you the shed was empty." +</p> + +<p> +"There was no trapdoor?" +</p> + +<p> +"I went back to see. I didn't just give it up, +either. I went back a few days later, one time +when Menning had passed our house and I knew +he'd be away on his rounds some time. I saw +the old woman. She was surly in a way, but +friendly to me. You see, I'd tended her before +when Menning had been beating her up—oh, +yes, he'd done that more than once to my +knowledge. The Nevills knew it, but there was no +good interfering; she'd deny it, and no one dared +tackle Menning. But she had to come to me, +once, and though she put up some story, I could +tell what had happened. Well, I chatted with +her there, and just to see what she'd say I asked +her if they didn't keep some sort of a dog on the +place. She said no, that they'd had a dog and +her son shot it because it howled at night. After +a while I left her settled there in the kitchen and +before I left I took my chance to go over every +hole and corner out of doors. Except for the cow +and a couple of pigs there wasn't the sign of any +animal round the place bigger than a cat. And +there was no opening in that shed except the +window and the door Menning came out by. +</p> + +<p> +"So now you know the whole thing—all Mary +Lessing claimed I was keeping back from you—and +I imagine you're about as wise as I am, and +that isn't much." +</p> + +<p> +"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" I asked. +</p> + +<p> +"What could I do? If I went telling that +around anyone would have a right to say I was +crazy and that I'd imagined the whole thing. +You might say—and I've tried to think myself—that +what I heard was just something running in +the bushes and what I saw was an old hen +fluttering in at the window. And maybe it was. +And I've known men who've been just as startled, +and have told circumstantial tales, over nothing +more." +</p> + +<p> +"You could have told it at its face value." +</p> + +<p> +"No," said Lennox, "I couldn't. My mind +doesn't work that way. I've got to weigh things. +And I've got to exhaust every possible reasonable +explanation, including my own physical +state at the time, before I'll admit that a thing +is so when I know it can't be so. If I've kept +this to myself it's because I wanted to find some +sort of explanation in my own mind first." +</p> + +<p> +He faced me, stolid and obstinate. Even in +that moment I admired his self-possession, his +dogged, common sense determination not to be +drawn into admission of the existence of any +thing that, as Lessing said, he couldn't stick a +pin into and label. And I knew, too, that it had +cost him something to tell me that story. +</p> + +<p> +"Well," I said, "that's only one more to the +list of things we don't seem able to clear up. +There's one point; that whatever the explanation +may be, it all seems to centre, in the end, +round Menning himself." +</p> + +<p> +Lennox rose and went to his desk. "It's what +I've always said," he threw back over his +shoulder. "Get Menning, and you get the root of +all this mystery." +</p> + +<p> +I sat pondering his story. It was not long +before my ears caught the sound of a motor +cycle along the road, and a few minutes after +Herrick appeared. He looked as if he had ridden +far and fast; his clothes were covered with dust +and there were grimy circles round his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"No, I don't want to eat," he said. "I got a +sandwich coming along. Just let me get this +dirt off, that's all." +</p> + +<p> +He went through to the kitchen, and we could +hear him splashing at the sink. When he came +back, still vigorously towelling his face, Lennox +had already mixed him a drink at the sideboard. +</p> + +<p> +"Well," Herrick said, settling himself in the +chair Lennox had vacated, "let's begin at the +beginning. When I left this morning, Austin, +I couldn't tell you where I was going, because +I didn't know myself. I had to pick up my +information on the way. I was on the track of +something which, it seems to me, none of us has so +far taken into account, and that is, Jakey +Menning's early life." +</p> + +<p> +"He was born right in this county," said +Lennox. +</p> + +<p> +"He was not. That's where you make your +mistake. He was between eight and nine years +old when he first came here. His mother, when +we first hear of her, was employed with a travelling +show, owned by a German Jew called Goldstein, +a sort of fourth rate circus that used to do +one-night stands in the small towns and villages. +She cooked for the men and looked after the +wardrobe. While she was working with them +Jakey was born. No one seems to have known +just who his father was. The mother passed as +a kind of half-wit. She was cunning under an +appearance of heavy stupidity, spoke a poor +English, was easily teased and enraged, and +seems to have been treated as the butt of the +company. They wintered usually in Pottsville, +where the proprietor's brother kept a saloon. +The proprietor's wife took rather a fancy to +Jakey, and later on, when Jakey's mother, during +the slack season, took a job as cook in a cheap +eating-joint there, she simply abandoned the +baby to the circus people. While she was +employed there she met Menning, married him, +and doesn't seem to have troubled about Jakey +for several years. Probably she never told +Menning of his existence. +</p> + +<p> +"They settled in the country, where Aaron was +born, and a few years after, for reasons unknown, +Menning deserted her. Then, for the first time, +she seems to have remembered Jakey, now growing +to an age when he might begin to make himself +useful about the farm. She set about claiming +him. The circus people, from what I could +hear, made some opposition. Jakey was being +trained as an acrobat and showed some promise, +though he was a difficult child to manage. +Moreover, they had kept him all this time and +expected some return. Times, however, were slack, +they probably foresaw trouble with the school +inspectors also, and in the end they let the +boy go. +</p> + +<p> +"He worked about the farm, off and on, for +some eight or ten years, and got himself +thoroughly disliked, as you know, by all the +Mennings' neighbours. The criminal streak in him +was already apparent, though in those days it +only took the form of spitefulness and mental +deficiency. He was idle and vagrant and finally, +at about seventeen years old, took himself off +one fine day and went back to the travelling +show, which he managed to trace up through the +Pottsville saloon-keeper. They took him back +as an extra hand, to help with the wagons. He +was not good enough for a performer, his training +being interrupted, but the proprietor about +that time had the idea of running one or two +freak side-shows, and they tried Jakey out as the +hoary old fake of 'wild man.'" +</p> + +<p> +Herrick paused a moment to light a fresh +cigarette, and in that instant I saw Lennox's +eye turn to me with something very like relief. +</p> + +<p> +"It seems," Herrick went on, "that he was +quite a successful attraction and I can certainly +believe it. There was naturally something apish +and uncouth about him, and very little make-up +would have turned the trick most naturalistically. +He stayed with the show nearly two years, +doing odd jobs by day and playing his wild-man +stunt at the performances. And then some sort +of queer thing must have happened. +</p> + +<p> +"I couldn't get the whole truth of it from the +Pottsville brother, who told me most of the +story. Either he didn't know or he was unwilling +to tell, but the gist of it is that there was +some row and Jakey got suddenly fired. From +what the Pottsville brother 'guessed,' Jakey +played his rôle too realistically, and the +proprietor refused then and there to keep him another +day. He had a little money in his pockets, he +turned up in Pottsville, where he hung about for +two or three days, and then made his way back +to the farm. +</p> + +<p> +"I would give a great deal to have ten minutes +with Goldstein himself, and know exactly +what did happen and why Jakey was fired. I +gathered that it was something pretty unpleasant. +But Goldstein is somewhere out in Ohio, +and try as I would, I could get nothing more +from the brother than what I have told you. I +think myself there was something hushed up at +the time, and that he is afraid even now of its +coming out. But I got enough I think to throw +some interesting light on what has happened +since." +</p> + +<p> +"Did you get any idea," Lennox asked, "of +Jakey's make-up when he was with these +people?" +</p> + +<p> +"No. Why?" +</p> + +<p> +"Tell him your story, Lennox," I said. +</p> + +<p> +He repeated briefly what he had already told +me. Herrick listened, his face intent. +</p> + +<p> +"So that was——" He pulled himself up +short. "Well, it isn't difficult to put two and two +together. The obvious explanation is that Jakey +has fallen back on his old circus stunt as a means +of terrorizing the neighbourhood. It wouldn't +be difficult. No one here, from what I can make +out—possibly not even his own family—knew +how he spent those two years while he was away. +There is a form of mania which takes just that +expression, and it is possible that in Jakey's +case it began out of sheer maliciousness, and +developed later into something a great deal +worse—a fixed mania which, with the rousing of +the homicidal instinct, turned him actually, at +moments, into the wild beast he pretended to be." +</p> + +<p> +"You think it was Menning—it was—well, +what I saw—that attacked Lessing?" +</p> + +<p> +"I am certain of it. Go over the thing +carefully, Lennox. There was no stunt outside the +possibility of a man with unusual physical +strength and ability, who had had acrobatic +training in boyhood. And remember that a +maniac can perform feats that in his sane +moments might be outside his powers. We are not +dealing with a normal person. That's the one +thing in this whole business we've got to +remember." He rose. "Austin, will you come over to +the bungalow with me? I'd like to see Lessing +tonight." +</p> + +<p> +I looked at my watch. "Ten o'clock. I told +them I'd be over. We'll take the cycle. It'll +carry two of us." +</p> + +<p> +He had left the motor cycle outside the porch. +As we wheeled it out to the roadway I said: +"You think that is the explanation of the whole +thing?" +</p> + +<p> +Herrick gave me a quick look. +</p> + +<p> +"I said it was the obvious explanation. It is. +But there's more mixed up with it than that. +And it's the other side of it that we shall never +get to the truth of until we get hold of Menning +himself." +</p> + +<p> +I thought of Lennox's description of what he +had seen, in that fleeting glimpse, and in spite of +myself a shudder went over me. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you mean that mania can actually transform +a human being to that degree?" +</p> + +<p> +"Haven't you see enough, Austin, in your own +experience, to answer that question?" +</p> + +<p> +I was silent. Every doctor, I imagine, has +had experiences which he is glad enough to put +out of his mind, and though my own were limited +so far, I had heard enough tales of abnormality, +at second hand, to know that there was truth +in Herrick's words. +</p> + +<p> +I took my seat on the back of the motor cycle, +and in a few minutes we had reached the rise +of hill. Turning the corner, we could see the +bungalow through the trees. There was still +a light burning. As we approached, the deep +melancholy howl of the dog broke on our ears. +Evidently Lessing had not yet let him out. +</p> + +<p> +We left the cycle against a tree and went up +to the porch. The door stood wide open, the +light streaming through it from the lamp on the +table inside. Of Lessing or his sister there was +no sign. Except for the steady howling of the +dog in the shed, the place was absolutely silent. +</p> + +<p> +We went through the empty rooms, came out +again on the porch. A chair was drawn up near +the doorway, with a book dropped in it +face-downward, as though someone had risen in haste. +That, and the lamp left flaring on the table, gave +me for the first time a definite thrill of +uneasiness. +</p> + +<p> +Herrick went back and lowered the flame. +"They can't have gone far," he said. "They +wouldn't have left the light that way. Let's +try the studio." +</p> + +<p> +We crossed the little space of ground beside +the house. The studio was dark; the door was +locked and the key on the outside. As we passed +the tool-shed there was a tumult within. The +dog, hearing our footsteps, flung himself against +the door in a frenzy of eagerness, whining, +scratching, tearing at the wood with his nails. +There was something in the deep, agonized, +almost human anxiety in his voice, raised, not in +yelps, but in steady entreaty, that sent a queer +thrill down by spine. Herrick felt it too. He +stopped short. +</p> + +<p> +"What's <i>got</i> that dog?" +</p> + +<p> +"Lessing shut him in this evening. It was +after——" +</p> + +<p> +I paused. All at once there came back to my +mind the dog's behaviour that afternoon, when +Lessing dragged him back from the saw-mill, +bristling and rebellious—Lessing's own face +when he joked about the rat. It was near the +identical spot where we had missed the dog +before, when he broke away from us on our way +down, just before we saw Menning's mother. +Menning's mother ... and Menning himself +had been seen in the neighbourhood the night +before. In a flash I saw the whole thing +clearly—Freeman's action, the ghost that haunted the +milldam, Rebecca's rifled cream-pans and the +old woman with her basket of chips. What a +fool I had been! +</p> + +<p> +In a moment I had drawn the bolt and the +setter was free. He barely stopped to notice +us; with a flash of his white chest and a wide-flung +yelp of relief he was off across the road and +into the woods. +</p> + +<p> +I caught Herrick's arm. "Lessing is at the +saw-mill. Come on—I'll tell you later!" +</p> + +<p> +"The saw-mill?" +</p> + +<p> +I saw his hand slip down to his pocket as we +ran. The same thought was in both our minds. +We broke through the underbrush on the far side +of the road, stumbled by chance on the footpath +and were racing along it, shoulder to shoulder, +while the setter's barking still echoed in our ears. +</p> + +<p> +For a while his voice guided us. Then, +abruptly, he was silent. We paused on the edge +of the clearing to take breath. All was still—that +closed-in stillness of the woods at night, +when all daytime life hushed. Before us loomed +the old mill, its broken roof and ruined timbers +black against the sky. For a moment there was +no sound but the pounding of the blood in our +ears, the dry rustle of a dead bush as Herrick +leaned forward, listening. +</p> + +<p> +Then suddenly, from somewhere in the recesses +of the old building itself, there broke on +that tense stillness another sound—more +horrible to me than anything else—the hoarse +choking breaths and muffled worrying of a dog +at grips with his enemy. It came, not from the +main floor of the mill, but from the basement +where the water-wheel hung. There was a doorway +on the near side of the mill, formerly used +for carting away the sawdust, but it had been +nailed up, and remembering this I called to +Herrick as I ran directly for the steep slope on +the side by the sluice. Here there was open +space to squeeze through, and with Herrick close +on my heels I trampled a way through the breast-high +weeds and bushes round the corner of the +building and gained an entrance. +</p> + +<p> +Within all was pitch black. The water was +shut off, but a little trickle still flowed through, +dripping from the slimy motionless bulk of the +great wheel above us. The air was warm, heavy +with the smell of rotting sawdust and of +something else, fetid and nauseous. The worrying +had ceased; we could hear the broken rapid +breathing of two bodies, there, unseen, +somewhere within a few feet of us in the darkness. +I made a step forward, but Herrick clutched my +arm, and as he did so the fight broke out again +with renewed fury, somewhere it seemed up in +the far corner, among the drifted sawdust. I +could recognize the setter's deep-throated snarls, +the snap of teeth seeking a grip, and with it +was another voice, deeper and more guttural—something +wholly strange and horrible—something +that snarled and panted and coughed in +choking gasps. The darkness moved; there came +the breath of a warm animal body, the straining +of a heavy weight flung against resisting +wood, and then the nailed planks gave way, the +sudden square of the doorway was obscured by +a tumbling, heaving mass and the next instant +we were alone—alone in the darkness with +silence round us and that fetid unforgettable +smell on the air. +</p> + +<p> +It was the same smell that Mary had complained +of that evening, wafted to us as we sat +on the porch—the smell, I knew now, that I had +first noticed on the day I passed the Mennings' +place in the early summer. +</p> + +<p> +"Phew!" said Herrick. +</p> + +<p> +He struck a match, shielding the flame with +his hands. The little flicker threw out shadows +high on the piled sawdust and gray ruined walls. +We could make out the huge mass of the wheel, +the shafts that ran to the story above, the great +beams supporting the broken flooring over our +heads. The match spluttered and went out, but +in that instant it had shown us what we sought, +a dark motionless figure lying huddled in the +far corner, where the sawdust sloped up in a +shadowy drift under the rafters. +</p> + +<p> +Herrick reached it first, his feet sinking deep +at every step as he scrambled up. I heard him +draw his breath in sharply as I struck another +match, and by its gleam saw Lessing, one arm +doubled under him and the clothes nearly torn +from his body, lying unconscious in a saturated +pool of blood. +</p> + +<p> +Of Mary there was no sign. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap21"></a></p> + +<h3> +XXI +<br><br> +THE THING IN THE WOODS +</h3> + +<p> +Together we managed to get Lessing back to +the house and laid him on the couch, and while +Herrick held the lamp I did the best I could for +his injuries with the means at my disposal. It +was an ugly job. One arm and shoulder were +badly mangled and the collar bone broken; he +had lost a great deal of blood and there was a +nasty contused wound above the temple. A +flicker of consciousness came back while I was +working over him, but the loss of blood told, and +he lapsed back again almost immediately. There +were stitches to be taken; nothing much could +be done except to check the bleeding with +temporary bandages and as soon as I could manage +single-handed Herrick rode off to Lennox for +help. +</p> + +<p> +In reality it was not long, though it seemed +to me an eternity that I kept that nightmare +vigil, my ears strained for any sound from +without, bending all my will-power on my task to +keep me from the one thought that I dared not +face, Mary. Where had she gone—what had +happened to her? I went over a thousand +possibilities, trying to find some reasonable +explanation to which I might cling, though as each +moment went by the stillness became more and +more a torture. If she had merely missed her +brother and gone down the road to call for him +we should have met her, or she would be back +by now. If she had been with him at the mill, +or had followed there ... I thought of the +deep blackness of the water at the end of the +dam, where we had passed that evening, the +sheer drop blow the sluice-gates, and shuddered. +</p> + +<p> +It was with infinite relief I caught the +approaching noise of the motor cycle and saw +Herrick reappear, followed only a few moments later +by Lennox with the light spring-wagon. It was +decided to take Lessing straightway to the +doctor's house, where he could be better looked +after than in the bungalow. We laid a mattress +in the bottom of the wagon and lifted him on to +this, and Herrick and I on the motor cycle +accompanied Lennox beyond the hollow at the foot +of the hill. Before we started Herrick, his face +grim and set in the lamplight, pulled out the +revolver I had lent him that morning and handed +it to me. +</p> + +<p> +"Keep that, Austin. I bought another today. +Lennox has his own." +</p> + +<p> +"There was an extra box of cartridges," I +said, "in the table-drawer." +</p> + +<p> +"Lennox gave them to me." +</p> + +<p> +When we had seen the wagon well along the +road we turned, and rode back to the bungalow. +</p> + +<p> +"Now," said Herrick, when we stood once +more in the lighted room, "the first thing is to +find Mary. And then ... there has got to be +an end to this. Are you ready to face it?" +</p> + +<p> +He did not need to ask me. I looked round +on the little room, gay and friendly with its +rugs and books and the great bowls of wildflowers +that Mary loved—the countless little +signs of her occupation, a sweater flung across +a chair, her work-basket of Indian grass on the +table—the room in which I had spent so many +happy hours, now suddenly sinister in its +desertion. And then my eye fell on the couch where +we had laid Lessing, and the hideous litter I had +left in my haste—stained wads of cotton and the +torn strips from his shirt with which we had +striven to check the blood before we carried him +up from the mill. +</p> + +<p> +"For God's sake," I exclaimed impulsively, +"let's get that cleared away before she gets back!" +</p> + +<p> +Before Mary got back ... the words died in +my throat. But I gathered up the telltale +evidence all the same—every last scrap and +fragment—and thrust them out of sight behind the +kitchen woodbox, before I turned to Herrick. +</p> + +<p> +"We'll try Sliefers' first," he said. "There's +just the possibility she is there." +</p> + +<p> +It was a slight chance, and as it proved, +fruitless. The farmer was still up, and opened the +door to us in stockinged feet. No one there had +seen Mary since the afternoon. Sliefer heard +our errand with a grave face. +</p> + +<p> +"There's no house she'd have come to but +this," he said. "There's only Scholl's and +Nevill's at the Bend, and they were both asleep +as you passed? They're a-bed by ten. Besides, +if there was anything out of the way they'd +either one of them have sent over here straight. +No. Unless the young lady's missed her way, or +met with some accident...." +</p> + +<p> +He looked at us doubtfully. It was no time +to mince matters. We told him, as briefly as we +could, what had happened that evening and how +we had found Lessing at the mill. +</p> + +<p> +He heard us out, his jaw set grimly. When we +had finished he rose without a word, a tall, still +stalwart figure in his stockinged feet, and +crossing the kitchen took down his gun that hung on +a rack above the door. +</p> + +<p> +"I guess I'm coming with you," he said. +</p> + +<p> +I glanced at Herrick. He nodded. +</p> + +<p> +"Three are better than two, Austin. We may +be glad of an extra hand before the night's out." He +turned to Sliefer, who had laid his gun on +the table, and was pulling on a pair of heavy +boots. "Have you got a good dog? I don't +mean the collie." +</p> + +<p> +"Aye. There's old Spot, back in the barn. +He'd pick up a trail anywheres. Nor he ain't +none too friendly to Menning, either, that's one +reason we've kep' him tied up, most of the time. +Now I guess I'll step up an' leave word with +Mother." +</p> + +<p> +He opened the stairway door and tip-toed up, +curiously noiseless on his heavy feet. We heard +whispering, a smothered exclamation; then he +came down, gently closing the door behind him. +</p> + +<p> +"I ain't told her nothing, only that you'd +missed Miss Lessing and we was going out to +hunt her up. There's no need she should know +about the rest of it. This ain't no woman's job, +nor it ain't no sheriff's job either. If they'd +come to me first off I know every track in these +woods back an' forth, and it won't be easy for +anyone to get away from me, not once we pick +his trail up. Menning can run these woods like +a fox, but he won't run far, not when I got a gun +in my hand. Not that I'd be scared to meet him +anywheres, gun or no gun, and I bet he knows it." +</p> + +<p> +A strange expression flitted across Herrick's +face as he measured the farmer's sturdy figure +with his eye. But he only said gravely: "You're +a good neighbour, Mr. Sliefer. As you say, this +is no sheriff's job now; it's up to us. And we're +going to see it through." +</p> + +<p> +We closed the door behind us. +</p> + +<p> +"I told Mother to bolt that, once we're gone," +Sliefer said. "Reckon we don't need no lantern." +</p> + +<p> +"Better not," Herrick said. +</p> + +<p> +The old man crossed to the barn and came +back a few minutes later with the dog on a +chain, a cross-bred hound by the look of him, +heavily built and brindled white and brown. +</p> + +<p> +"That's what they used to call a bear-dog," +the farmer said, "when I was a boy. The breed's +pretty well died out now. I've had old Spot +here eleven years, and I had his mother an' +grandmother before him. You don't see 'em +nowadays, any more. They raise these light-built +hounds now, but they ain't the fighters +these dogs were." +</p> + +<p> +The farmer was a brisk walker. He picked +his way through the woods, turning here, pausing +there, at what seemed to us invisible signs and +landmarks, making his way unerringly through +the trees and undergrowth, the hound close to +his heels, till presently we stood once more on +the open road a little below the bungalow. I +looked eagerly towards the house, only to see +the turned down light burning just as we had +left it. +</p> + +<p> +"We'll try here first," Sliefer said. +</p> + +<p> +He took two or three turns about the road and +clearing, but the dog took no interest. We +recrossed the road to the farther side, and here, +among the underbrush near the path Herrick +and I had taken, he showed the first signs of +keenness, sniffing to and fro, his nose laid close +to the ground. In a few moments he was off at +a leisurely trot along the path. +</p> + +<p> +"Picked up the other dog's scent, most like," +said Sliefer, watching him. "Come on. We'll +find him at the mill." +</p> + +<p> +He took us by a short cut through the bushes, +across a cleared space of stumps and blackberry +vines, and turning into the woods at the left +again, brought us in a few minutes on the +sawmill road. The hound was there before us, +moving shadow-like about the clearing. When +we came up to him he was clearly puzzled and +uneasy. He moved warily, his forefeet stiffly +braced, his ears laid back, the hair along his +spine bristling as he snuffed to and fro. +</p> + +<p> +I touched Herrick's shoulder. "Do you see +that? It's the same way Leo was acting this +afternoon." +</p> + +<p> +"Give him time," said Sliefer. "I know Spot. +He ain't made his mind up yet." +</p> + +<p> +Shifting the gun under his arm, he pulled out +a can of tobacco and began to roll a cigarette. +Somehow that natural matter-of-fact action did +much to relax my tense nerves. With Herrick +I watched the hound closely. He approached +the broken doorway, sniffed, peered, circled off +a couple of times and then, as though suddenly +making up his mind to it, plunged inside, only +to reappear an instant after and set off, head +down, with a queer muffled whine, through the +underbrush. I made a move to follow but Sliefer +checked me. +</p> + +<p> +"Wait a bit. He ain't sure yet. He'll give +us the holler when he's sure started." +</p> + +<p> +He was right. After a little while Spot came +back, breaking cover near the back of the mill, +and returned to us, uneasiness and perplexity +in every line of his taut body. With his eyes +fixed on his master's face he waited, eager and +yet strangely reluctant, and again with a thrill +I noticed that involuntary bristling of his spine, +the trembling of his lower jaw, as though at +some unfamiliar and disturbing proximity. +Twice the farmer spoke to him encouragingly, +and twice the dog circled off, checked abruptly +and came back. Sliefer grew impatient. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know what's got into the dog. He +ain't never acted that way before. Hey there, +Spot! Get to it! Fetch em' boy!" +</p> + +<p> +For a moment the hound eyed him. Then, +with the same abruptness with which he had +entered the mill he raised his head, gave a low +whine, and was off in a straight line through the +underbrush. Almost immediately we heard his +first call, the warning bell-like note of a hound +on the found trail. +</p> + +<p> +"He's picked it up all right," the farmer said. +"Come on. I back Spot to keep a scent once +he's got it." +</p> + +<p> +We started after him, keeping as steady a pace +as we could in the darkness. It was well that +Sliefer was with us. He made his way with the +unerring ease of a man used to the woods from +boyhood, to whom night is almost the same as +day, and all we needed to do was to follow in his +tracks. The hound seemed to be keeping an +even course, some couple of hundred yards ahead +of us; his deep warning cry, pitched always on +the same two notes, rang out at intervals and +Sliefer had no difficulty in guiding his way by the +sound. +</p> + +<p> +Once, in the neighbourhood of the Menning +house, the dog was at fault; he hesitated and all +but turned aside towards the out-buildings, but +in the end picked up the scent again and struck +out in a northerly direction through the woods. +</p> + +<p> +For nearly an hour we followed him, through +tracts of dense second growth and across spaces +of stony pasture, out again on a back road, with +an occasional darkened house tranquil in its +grassy yard, looping and turning here and there, +but on the whole keeping a fairly straight course. +We crossed two sloping pastures, plunged into +a thicket of young trees, and presently found +ourselves on a space of rising ground, strewn with +huge boulders and set with stunted juniper and +spruce. +</p> + +<p> +Ahead of us the hound's voice rang out clear +and mournful, as it seemed to me with a deepening +note. Sliefer paused and looked about him. +The moon was rising. It showed the sharp line +of hills, densely wooded on either side, with the +dark cleft of a gorge between. Through the gap +in a ruined stone fence we could see a cart track, +all but obliterated, that wound into obscurity. +</p> + +<p> +"I know this place," the farmer said. "It's +near what they call Rocky Hollow. I haven't +been here in years, but I used to know it well +when I was a boy. I sort of suspicioned he was +heading for here, right along. Once in them +big rocks in there you won't trap a man easy, +not if he knows his way. If we'd had time to +head him off, now." +</p> + +<p> +I glanced at Herrick. He was staring straight +at that narrow closed-in gorge, his eyes keen +and fixed. +</p> + +<p> +"Is there any other outlet there?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not easy. It's straight-up rock at the far +end and the woods are pretty thick. A man +would have to make slow going, either way he +took it. If he's in there——" +</p> + +<p> +We followed the cart track till it ended in a +little grassy clearing from which a few steps +brought us to the spot Sliefer had called "Rocky +Hollow." It was a small, narrow valley, filled +with masses of piled boulders, some enormous, +some small, the remains evidently of some +ancient moraine. They looked as if giant hands +had flung them there in sport, one upon another. +Seen by daylight, with the black wooded hillside +shutting it in, the place would be desolate +enough; by the faint growing moonlight it had a +look indescribably grim and sinister. Here, one +felt, among those barren stones and piled +boulders, that took fantastic shapes in the play of +light and shadow, would be a fit hiding-place +for anything evil. +</p> + +<p> +Higher up the ravine, near us but hidden from +sight, the hound was baying furiously, no longer +the bell-like note that had guided us through +the woods, but a hoarse deep voice of warning +and anger. We made our way towards the +sound, scrambling over the stones, and found +him standing before an opening between two +boulders, where an overhanging rock formed +a sort of rough cavern. There was a glimpse of +something white within, and for a moment my +heart turned sick with fear. But it was only +a sheet of crumpled greasy newspaper that had +evidently contained food. There were the +charred remains of a small campfire and an old +tin can lay in one corner. +</p> + +<p> +Sliefer caught the dog by his collar as we +peered inside. He picked up the crumpled sheet. +</p> + +<p> +"A week old," he said. "Here's where he +hung out, all right. No tramp ever comes here; +it's too far off the main road." +</p> + +<p> +Stooping forward, I had rested my hand on the +rock at one side. It was warm to the touch, +and I turned quickly to the blackened embers +near. +</p> + +<p> +"He's not far off, either. That fire——" +</p> + +<p> +"Is cold," returned Herrick quickly, touching +the ashes. +</p> + +<p> +The stone was warm, I could have sworn it. +Somebody, only a moment ago, had lain there. +There was a sudden oath from Sliefer, and I +turned to see, a hundred feet down the gorge, +something that twisted and moved, a stealthy +misshapen shadow, between the gray boulders. +It was a bare glimpse, seen in a flash and blotted +out immediately against the grayish rocky +background, but in that second I thought of Lennox +and I too felt cold down my spine. +</p> + +<p> +The farmer's face had gone a curious sickly +white. He stood holding his gun stupidly, with +fingers that shook. +</p> + +<p> +"That ... that weren't no man ... that...." +</p> + +<p> +"Did you see?" cried Herrick. +</p> + +<p> +There was a sharp note of excitement in his +voice. I nodded. "It ... went off down +there." +</p> + +<p> +Sliefer had pulled himself together. He swung +round, his face suddenly savage. +</p> + +<p> +"Man or beast, by God, we'll get him now! +<i>That</i> shan't run the woods another night, not +if I drop in my tracks!" +</p> + +<p> +He shouted to the dog, but the hound, with +the rare stupidity of his race, was still snuffing +round the cave. Dragged away, he tried one +scent and another in and out the boulders, but +the tracks had been crossed and confused a +dozen times and we lost precious minutes before +he picked up his right trail at last, halfway down +the gorge, and was off again on his slow loping +gait. +</p> + +<p> +He ran silently, this time, and in deadly +earnest. Only occasionally his voice came back +to us, low-pitched and warning. Downhill, over +the shoulder of that same sloping pasture we had +crossed before, then a wide detour to the right, +skirting a swamp where our feet sunk deep +between the tussocks—more open fields and then +again back to the woods. On we kept doggedly, +through hours it seemed to me—more slowly +now, for the steady pace was beginning to tell +on us—in silence only broken by Sliefer's heavy +breathing as he forged ahead, his ear bent always +for the sound of the dog's voice. By his old +hunter's instinct he knew which way the hound +was running, and was able to save many a turn +by short cuts which we followed unquestionably, +relying on that seventh sense of his which never +seemed to fail us. +</p> + +<p> +It was getting on towards dawn when Sliefer +paused finally at a cross-road which seemed to +me familiar. +</p> + +<p> +"See that?" he said. "There's the right-hand +fork that turns back to the Bend, past the old +Sullivan house. He's circling back on his old +tracks. A while back I thought he was trying +to make that tract of woods the other side of +the State road, but the dog's headed him out of +that. It's getting on for daylight now, and the +way I figure it he'll try and make for some place +he knows. He daren't show up round the village +and I reckon he'll keep clear of the old house, for +he knows that's been watched. By the way he's +headed now, it's either the saw-mill or some other +place near it. He knows he can't give Spot the +slip again in the woods and he's hard pushed—ain't +got much chance now to pick an' choose. +I say we won't waste time but jest chance it and +cut in right here towards the mill. There's an +old wood-road just a little ways further up that'll +be easier going than if we took the long way +round." +</p> + +<p> +"Right," said Herrick. He loosened the +revolver in his belt. "Are we agreed? Whatever +we see, close in on it, but don't fire unless you +have to." +</p> + +<p> +Sliefer gave him a quick, grim look. +</p> + +<p> +"I reckon nothin'll get by me again. That +don't happen twice. We ain't any bunch of +girls that he can fool with his damn play-acting." +</p> + +<p> +Again that queer look flitted across Herrick's +face, but he said nothing, only fell in silently +beside me as we followed Sliefer into the path. +</p> + +<p> +It was darker here. The trees shut in close +about us. Sliefer was a few paces ahead. +Presently I felt Herrick's hand on my arm. +</p> + +<p> +"Less than half an hour to daybreak! God, +Austin, if we can only beat him to it!" +</p> + +<p> +He quickened pace as he spoke. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you mean? We'll get him anyhow." +</p> + +<p> +"We'll get Menning, yes ... but we mayn't +get the thing that attacked Dick. Yes, they're +the same, but—Austin, I can't explain to you +now, but I tell you we've got to make every effort +in these last few minutes. If Sliefer's right, and +he's doubled back, we're all right. Otherwise...." +</p> + +<p> +"But he must know——" +</p> + +<p> +"He <i>knows</i>. He isn't playing for safety; he +knows that's over. He wasn't playing for safety +when he made that big detour, he's playing for +time. It's time that matters, and it's there +we've got to beat him. Austin, Sliefer talks of +play-acting, but is it play-acting that can keep +a man ahead of a dog for the best part of the +night? Was it play-acting that half-killed +Lessing? No, if we're ever to know the truth we've +got to know it now, within these next twenty +minutes. Ah!" +</p> + +<p> +It was the hound again, sudden, sharp, and +near at hand. Sliefer had been right after all. +We were within a few steps of the saw-mill +clearing, but the dog was there before us. He +was circling the ground, barking furiously as +he had done in the gorge, his attention divided +between the mill itself and the group of trees, +with an old dead chestnut among them, that +stood within a dozen feet of the building and +a little nearer the sluice gate. But he left the +trees when we came up and flung himself +savagely against the boarded doorway. +</p> + +<p> +"That was open when we left it, Herrick—do +you remember?" +</p> + +<p> +He took out his revolver. +</p> + +<p> +"Go round to the back, Sliefer, and take the +dog with you. Austin, watch this end from outside. +I'll go through; I've got the flashlight." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm coming with you," Sliefer said. +</p> + +<p> +"All right. One must stay outside, in case +... Austin, it'll be you, then. If anything—<i>anything</i>, +you understand—tries to get past you, +shoot to cripple it. Fire low. Remember what +I told you!" +</p> + +<p> +He flung the door open; I heard the quick rush +of the dog's feet. With every nerve tense to +straining-point I listened, but the seconds slowly +passed and there was no further sound. I moved +a few paces back, to get a clearer view of the +building and waited. +</p> + +<p> +From within I fancied once I could hear Sliefer's +voice. The flashlight moved to and fro, its +gleam visible through the cracks of the old walls. +Now they were going through the upper floor. +</p> + +<p> +There was a stillness in the air, that chill hush +which comes just before dawn. Already the +light was changing, becoming faintly clear and +shadowless. Somehow, with this drawing-near +of daylight, of the return to common day shapes +and things, the nightmare feeling of those dark +hours dropped from me; I seemed to see it as +something fantastic, monstrous, a bad dream. +All the events of the last few hours crowded in +upon me—the finding of Lessing, Mary's +disappearance, our grim chase through the night +woods. How far were these things connected—what +was Herrick's idea? What were we after—a +criminal, hunted and desperate, endowed with +animal strength and cunning, but yet a man like +ourselves—or a figment of Herrick's brain? +</p> + +<p> +From within the building I heard an exclamation, +the dog's sharp whine. Nerves suddenly +taut, I waited, my eyes fixed on the broken +doorway. And then some instinct—I don't know +what—made me turn and look up. +</p> + +<p> +I was standing almost directly under the old +dead chestnut, near which the dog had been +nosing when we arrived. Its bare greyish limbs, +gnarled and twisted, stretched above me, bare +in the growing light. Bare—but as I looked one +of those twisted boughs seemed to stir and +change, heave slowly, detach itself in some +monstrous way from the rest and take living shape. +I tried to cry out, dragged helplessly at my +revolver, but before I could get it free something +fell on me, clutching, I was borne to the ground +beneath a hairy living weight, bestial, loathesome, +an unnameable horror. +</p> + +<p> +For an eternity, it seemed to me, we struggled +there. The thing was stronger than I, and strive +as I would I could get no clear view of it. +Coarse long fur, indescribably filthy, was against +my mouth and nose, and my clutching hands +met in it helplessly. I made a supreme effort +and twisted my head to one side till my face +pressed the earth, in a blind instinct of +preservation. Long curved nails caught at my throat, +and once I fancied a hand that was partly human. +Strangely, through it all, I kept my mind +somehow clear; the fear of losing consciousness was +stronger in me than any other. This, I remember +thinking, was the Thing that had attacked +Lessing, that had killed the two cyclists, falling +on them as it had fallen on me. Herrick was +right ... I would tell Herrick ... and I +wondered what they would say when they found +me. Darkness shut down; I was lying under a +heavy mountain, and then the mountain lifted, +I heard the hoarse snarl of the dog and an oath +and Herrick's voice crying sharply: "Don't +shoot!" +</p> + +<p> +There was a blinding report close to me. +Somehow I staggered to my feet. Herrick was +supporting me. The smoke cleared away, and +through it I could see Sliefer, the gun in his +hands, and on the ground something that writhed +and twisted in beastlike shape and yet cried out +with a human voice and dragged itself, still +dreadfully crying, up the slope to the water's +edge, swayed there for a sickening instant and +fell with a splash into the black depths below. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap22"></a></p> + +<h3> +XXII +<br><br> +THE SILVER BULLET +</h3> + +<p> +Pale clear sunlight; early twittering of birds; +the clean freshness of dawn.... +</p> + +<p> +The lamp was still burning on the table when +we reached the bungalow. Herrick put it out. +Then he laid a hand on my shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +"Austin——" +</p> + +<p> +There was a clatter of wheels on the road +outside. Someone had pulled up outside the house. +It was a boy—Hiram Scholl's boy—taking his +load of milk-cans over to the creamery. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know as you've missed that yeller +dog that belongs here," he called out, "but if the +folks were looking for him I thought I'd tell +you. He's over to the little house back on our +wood-lot up the road. I called to him, an' I +dunno but he's hurt or something, for he's just +layin' there an' he wouldn't come. So if you +want to go after him I guess he's still there." +</p> + +<p> +"Leo!" I exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +Herrick turned to me quickly as the boy drove +off. "What house is that?" +</p> + +<p> +"Hiram Scholl's. It was empty, but someone +said that Menning's mother—Herrick, there's +just a chance!" +</p> + +<p> +I sprang for the motor-cycle, leaning where +we had left it the night before, by the side of +the house. In a moment I had it out on the road +and Herrick swung to the seat behind me as I +started the engine up. +</p> + +<p> +Five minutes brought us to the spot where the +house stood, a tiny frame shack set on a space of +half-cleared woodland back from the road. To +reach it we had to climb the slope of stony +pasture that divided Scholl's land from the woods, +and as we came in sight of the house, half-hidden +among the stunted spruce and juniper trees my +eyes caught a yellowish spot stretched on the +doorstone. +</p> + +<p> +It was the setter. He whined as I called to +him, but without turning, his gaze fixed on the +closed door. His fine coat was draggled and +matted with blood about the throat; he sprang +to his feet as we came near and began to paw +at the doorway. +</p> + +<p> +I knocked. No one moved within. The one +window was close shuttered, but I fancied, +listening, I could hear a faint crooning sound from +inside. +</p> + +<p> +Together we set our shoulders to the door. +It gave way, and we found ourselves in the one +tiny living-room of the house. It was dark and +close there was a disorder of household things +piled here and there. On a small broken rocker +in the middle of the floor, Mrs. Menning sat +huddled, swaying to and fro, with the low crooning +mutter we had heard from outside. She had +an old coloured handkerchief tied over her head +and a small silver cross was hung on a thin chain +round her wrinkled neck. Her aged face was +impassive; her eyes, uncannily keen and bright, +seemed to look straight through us into distance. +</p> + +<p> +"Where is Miss Lessing?" I asked. +</p> + +<p> +She made no sign of having heard me, only +kept up that faint unintelligible muttering. +Herrick went over and shook her gently by the +shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +"Where is Miss Lessing? You got to tell us." +</p> + +<p> +She twisted her shoulder from his grasp and +sunk lower into the chair, her eyes averted. My +ears had caught a sound overhead. There was +no stairway in the room, but behind a pile of +furniture a wooden button betrayed a door that +I had taken for an ordinary closet. Hastily, I +began to drag the things aside. The old woman +saw my purpose and slipped with sudden agility +to her feet, her eyes blazing with anger, but +Herrick thrust her aside and in an instant we had +the door open and were upstairs, the dog at our +heels. +</p> + +<p> +"Mary!" +</p> + +<p> +I caught her in my arms—unhurt, thank God—and +carried her down, through the shuttered +room, past the old muttering woman—out into +the open and the clean air. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Austin, that old woman! She met me +on the road—I had gone to call for Dick, and +she said she was looking for me; that Dick had +had an accident and they'd brought him to this +house and sent for me. She told me to go +upstairs, that he was there, and she shut the door +and wouldn't let me out. There was no window; +no one could have heard me from outside. And +then Leo found me, I heard him barking and she +tried to drive him away, but he wouldn't go. +Good old Leo!" She put her arm round the +setter, who was trying hard to reach her face +with his tongue. "I knew he'd help you to find +me. Austin, where <i>is</i> Dick?" +</p> + +<p> +I had to tell her, breaking it as gently as I +could. +</p> + +<p> +"Will you take me to him at once, please—now! +Austin, I knew something was going to +happen—I felt it. That's why I was worried, last +night—I couldn't explain. And then shut up +alone there, not knowing what it was.... +That old woman—she was dreadful, but she +wasn't unkind to me. Do you suppose she +<i>knew</i>—that she just wanted to get me somewhere +safe?" +</p> + +<p> +Who knew? Was there perhaps a spark of +human feeling in that strange warped soul, half +unhinged by her own troubles, something that +Mary's chance kindness, that afternoon by the +saw-mill, had reached and touched? It might +have been. +</p> + +<p> +We walked down the hill, and I took Mary on +the motor-cycle behind me as far as Lennox's, +leaving Herrick to follow on foot. Dick was +better. He had passed a feverish night, Lennox +said, but the fever had left him with dawn and he +was in an exhausted but normal sleep when we +arrived. +</p> + +<p> +I left Mary with him, and walked back along +the road to meet Herrick. +</p> + +<p> +"And now," I said, "tell me—tell me the whole +thing. Jack, what was it?" +</p> + +<p> +We were near the old twisted cedar by the +hollow, the tree by which Aaron had met his +death that spring. Herrick sat down on a +boulder by the roadside and began to scrape +slowly at his pipe. +</p> + +<p> +"I told you about Menning and his wild-man +stunt—all that I found out the other day. +Menning had a criminal twist and he knew how to +turn that trick to his own ends. It is far easier +to simulate the grotesque—the superhuman, if +you like—than most people suppose. Isn't that, +after all, the basis of the witch-doctors' power? +Even an ordinary man becomes horrible if you +put a mask on him. And remember that Menning +had a streak of abnormality to start with, +and the thing may very easily, as I said, have +become an obsession with him. Anyway that's +the best explanation one can put on it, and the +one that Lennox and our friend Sliefer, and Lessing +himself, will agree upon. After all, it pretty +well covers the facts." +</p> + +<p> +I remembered his words the night before. +</p> + +<p> +"Then what did you mean about the dawn?" +</p> + +<p> +Herrick was silent a moment. +</p> + +<p> +"We're all well out of a bad business, Austin," +he said then. "Don't you think we'd better let +it go at that?" +</p> + +<p> +"But you had another theory. You had it +that morning, after the fire. You wouldn't tell +me what it was. But I don't imagine you've +changed your mind altogether." +</p> + +<p> +"No, I didn't change my mind," Herrick said. +He put his hand into his pocket. When he withdrew +it there lay, on his palm, the little battered +silver button that Lennox had first shown us. +</p> + +<p> +"You remember, Austin," he said, "that I recalled +one or two facts to your mind that evening. +This was One of them. I want you to look +at it again." +</p> + +<p> +"It is a button," I said. "A button such as +you find on some European peasants' costumes." +</p> + +<p> +"Westphalian peasants, such as Menning's +mother came from. Lennox overlooked that fact, +though as the button is badly defaced we can +excuse him. I'll help you out, Austin. It is of +pure silver, very soft, and it has been hammered +to form a rough bullet that could be fired from +an old-fashioned muzzle-loading gun." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't see how that helps you." +</p> + +<p> +"I want you to think," he said, "what particular +associations there are with a silver bullet." +</p> + +<p> +I stared at the little pellet in my hand, striving +with some vague recollection at the back of +my mind. +</p> + +<p> +"They were used against ... against ... some +sort of witchcraft," I said at last. "I don't +see——" +</p> + +<p> +"They were used against lycanthropy," said Herrick. +</p> + +<p> +I stared at him. I suppose I looked stupid. +I felt it. It was as though some spectre, strange, +ghastly, altogether of another world, had risen +up suddenly there before us in these quiet +Pennsylvania woods. +</p> + +<p> +"A mania—subject imagines himself some +beast, resulting in actual physical +transformations—exhibits depraved appetites—frequently +homicidal..." I recalled haltingly the +words of an old treatise. +</p> + +<p> +"They did more than believe they were animals," +said Herrick dryly. "They seem to have +succeeded in impressing their belief pretty +strongly upon their neighbours and relatives. +Did you ever dig into old records of that sort, +Austin? The were-wolf stories of the Middle +Ages? They're rather grim reading." +</p> + +<p> +I was silent. +</p> + +<p> +"Remember our facts," he went on. "Menning's +mother came from Westphalia, one of +the parts of Europe where the belief in +lycanthropy is most widely spread and where its +existence is still credited among the peasants of +today. Lycanthropy was believed to be a +hereditary taint, as transmissible as insanity, +which may lie dormant through one or more +generations, so much so that at one time the +relatives of an accused man or woman were all +held suspect. There seems to have been more or +less of a mystery about the Mennings altogether, +chiefly on account of the mother's character, +and most particularly in regard to Jakey. +Remember also what Lennox said about the strong +persistence of type in both sons, although of +different paternity. We have Lennox's assertion +that there was something peculiar, 'animal', +about Jakey, which certainly impressed him, but +which he seemed rather at a loss to describe. +Then there is that unexplained incident when +Jakey was with the circus. Whatever it was, +it was something that gave such a shock to the +proprietor—who, remember, had originally +conceived the idea of the wild-man stunt himself, +so wasn't likely to have been taken in by +acting—that he sacrificed his best drawing card then +and there sooner than have Jakey remain +another night with the show. All the brother +would say was that he 'guessed Jakey acted too +well,' which in itself is fairly significant. +</p> + +<p> +"That Aaron knew, or suspected, certain facts +about his brother, there is no doubt. Why else +should he so obstinately oppose any medical +examination, and particularly the idea of Jakey +being removed even temporarily from their +control? Why did he make the very singular +statement that Jakey was 'all right in the +daytime,' and that <i>at night they shut him up</i>?" +</p> + +<p> +"And the bullet?" I asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you remember that Aaron promised if +it became necessary he would take steps? What +those steps were he did not say, but I believe +myself that this silver bullet answers the +question. Remember the horror in which +lycanthropy was held, the revulsion it excited, and +think whether he would not have resorted to the +gravest measures sooner than have the whole +concealed story come to light. +</p> + +<p> +"I think that Aaron had already determined +that night, unknown to their mother, to put an +end to the whole thing; that he went out to seek +his half-brother at the time, and under that +form, when alone it would be possible to bring +himself to do that which he felt had to be done. +Jakey must have suspected. There was a struggle +between the two, and it was Aaron who was +killed, before he had time to use the silver +bullet which he dropped, there, in the moment of +unexpected attack. The old mother must have +known the truth; through all her horror and +superstition her love for her first son survived, +and together they concocted the story of Aaron's +absence with the wagon. That she paid bitterly, +many times over, for her impulse, there is no +doubt. She was now completely under Jakey's +dominion—the dominion of a being little better +than a monster, whom she dared not now +denounce, for who would have believed her story? +</p> + +<p> +"It is certain that what we saw last night is +what attacked Lessing, and had attacked him +previously. It reached him through the +skylight, but not altogether as he thought. It +climbed. You will remember that in every +instance the attack was from overhead." +</p> + +<p> +"But the thing that... that I touched..." +I cried. "It was <i>furry</i>! It——" +</p> + +<p> +I stopped short, taken with a sudden shudder. +</p> + +<p> +"I know," said Herrick. +</p> + +<p> +"I had hoped," he went on, "that you didn't +retain any very definite impression. That's +why——" +</p> + +<p> +"<i>You</i> saw it." +</p> + +<p> +"We all saw something. We thought we did." +</p> + +<p> +"And Sliefer..." I paused. "Herrick, +there was something else. I remember now. +You were holding me. And you told Sliefer +not to fire. I wondered..." +</p> + +<p> +"They say there is a change, one way or +another, at the moment of death," Herrick said. +"I knew it. I tried to stop him." He paused +a moment. "I was too late. That's all." +</p> + +<p> +We sat there for a moment, not speaking. +Then Herrick knocked his pipe out against the +boulder and rose to his feet. +</p> + +<p> +"Come on back to the house. Mrs. Searle +will have breakfast for us, and we both look +rather a wreck!" He laid a hand on my shoulder. +"Take my advice, Austin, and put this whole +thing out of your mind. I told you in the +beginning—there's the other explanation; why not +stand by it? As I say, it covers all the facts. +The rest is between us three. Look at it how +you will, whatever happened last night happened +for the best." +</p> + +<p> +I remembered the thing that had cried and +twisted on the ground, and was silent. Herrick +was right. +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +As soon as Lessing was able to travel we went +down, the three of us, to the little cottage on +the Sound which they had rented for the +remainder of the fall. Herrick came down for an +occasional long week-end, and it was during +one of these, when we were lounging out on the +beach before supper, that he handed me without +comment a little cutting from a Pennsylvania +local paper. +</p> + +<p> +It was headed "Man's Body found in Millpond" +and stated briefly how some boys, fishing +in Sliefer's dam, had discovered the body of a +man, believed to be that of a certain Aaron +Menning, chicken pedlar, who had disappeared from +the neighborhood mysteriously some weeks before. +The body, which had lain for a considerable +time in the water, showed the trace of two +bullet wounds, but owing to the difficulties of +medical evidence after so long a time had elapsed +it was not possible to prove that either of these +had been sufficient to cause death, which was +brought in, on the finding of the coroner's jury, +as accidental. "It will be remembered," the +article concluded, "that equally mysterious +circumstances attended, less than a year ago, the +death of Menning's stepbrother, whose body was +found at a spot not half a mile from the scene of +this later tragedy. Though there was no +suggestion of foul play at the time, rumor later +connected Aaron's name, in no uncertain terms, +with his stepbrother's death, a rumor which his +disappearance served to strengthen in many +persons' minds. Whatever the circumstances which +led to this second tragedy, and how far the two +may be connected, will remain for ever a +mystery, since Aaron's death closes definitely the +last chapter in the story of this singularly +ill-fated family." +</p> + +<p> +"What's that?" asked Lessing. +</p> + +<p> +I slipped the cutting into my pocket. My +compact with Herrick still held good. +</p> + +<p> +"Only some more nonsense of Jack's." +</p> + +<p> +Lessing grinned up at me from where he +lounged, one bandaged arm stretched above his +head, in the deck-chair. +</p> + +<p> +"I should think, as an engaged man, you ought +to be getting impervious by this time." +</p> + +<p> +"I am. Don't you worry!" +</p> + +<p> +Over the lawn, through the warm-scented +dusk, came Mary's voice from the porch. +</p> + +<p> +"Austin!" she called. "Dick! Are you three +going to sit there all night?" +</p> + +<p> +Herrick moved away. +</p> + +<p> +"Come on," he said over his shoulder. "Supper +is ready, and I won't risk being told again +that I monopolize you all the day!" +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> +THE END +</p> + +<p><br><br><br><br></p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76059 ***</div> +</body> + +</html> + + diff --git a/76059-h/images/img-cover.jpg b/76059-h/images/img-cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bce8ff2 --- /dev/null +++ b/76059-h/images/img-cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5dba15 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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