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diff --git a/76592-0.txt b/76592-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2778f53 --- /dev/null +++ b/76592-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,448 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76592 *** + + + + + + Murder Mask + + By EDGAR DANIEL KRAMER + + _A brief tale about the homicidal + effect of wearing a medieval mask._ + + [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from + Weird Tales June 1937. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that + the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +With conflicting emotions in his faded eyes, the stooped and wrinkled +butler bowed Colletti into the sun-flooded drawing-room. + +"I will tell the master and mistress you are here, sir," the old +servitor's cracked voice quavered, as he backed away. "I would as soon +meet the Devil!" he spat and crossed himself hastily as soon as he was +out of the visitor's sight. "With his hypocrite's smile and his cruel, +green eyes!" He shuddered. "Ugh!" + +Colletti, tall, dark, slender, prematurely graying at the temples, set +his hat, gloves and stick on the nearest chair and with the lithe, +slinking movements of a velvet-footed jungle beast advanced to the +center table. His inscrutable gaze fastened on the gardenia in his +lapel, he drew a bit of silk from the inside pocket of his coat. For +a clock-tick or two he scrutinized it. Then, sucking in his breath +with a reptilian hiss, he let it slip from his tapering fingers to the +sun-splashed table top. It lay like a clot of blood on the polished +mahogany. From a vest pocket he thumbed a rectangle of pasteboard, +dog-eared and time-yellowed, which bore the badly faded, delicately +penned legend: + + Who wears this mask + Is doomed to slay + Whom he loves best, + Ere break of day! + +As Colletti stood, holding the worn card between his thumb and +forefinger, a hideous change crept over him. The ghost of a smile +playing about the corners of his thin-lipped mouth grew sardonic. His +whole bearing became as deadly, as sinister, as a rattler ready to +strike. Like a miasma lifting from a fen, he exuded an aura of evil +that polluted the atmosphere around him and took the warmth from the +sunlight. + +His features grew wolfish and hardened into olive granite, while his +eyes blazed feverishly, as he thought of his dead grandfather's will, +that left all the eccentric importer's estate to his ward, Nita Tosca, +in trust for her children, if she married either of his nephews, +Antonio Colletti or Tomaso Romani, but divided the income equally among +the trio if the girl remained single or married somebody else. In such +a contingency, upon the demise of the last of the three, the principal +was to be distributed to stipulated charities. + +Nita had rejected Colletti's passionate suit and married Romani. +Hiding his real feelings, Colletti had contrived to act as his +cousin's best man. After the wedding, feeling cheated, nursing his +wounded vanity, with hatred of the newly-weds festering in his veins, +he fled to Europe. That was six months ago. Now he was back in his +dead grandfather's house with a handful of silk, a frayed card, an +all-consuming hate, an inexorable determination to get Nita and her +husband out of the picture and---- + +"Tony!" A voice like the tinkling of silver bells roused Colletti from +his devilish introspection. + +Thrusting the card away, a quick smile driving the satanic expression +from his face, he jerked around like an automaton, as a slip of a +woman, blue-eyed, golden-haired, ivory-skinned, came fluttering toward +him. Behind her, in the doorway, her husband paused. At first glance +and to the superficial observer, he was strikingly like Colletti. +Closer study of the cousins, however, brought out subtle differences. +Whereas Colletti was soft, hinting of unclean, forbidden things, with +the unhealthy pallor of a plant too long away from the sun, Romani was +as hard as a shining rapier, as clean as the salt tang of the sea, as +frank as the day itself. + +"Nita!" Colletti's suave voice was a caress, as he seized the young +woman's impulsively outstretched hands. "It _is_ good to see you again. +You are lovelier than ever." + +She laughed musically. + +"You're looking splendid, Tom." Colletti shook hands with his cousin. + +"I've never felt better," Romani answered. "When did you get back?" + +"Yesterday," Colletti told him. "On the _Normandie_." + +"You'll be coming to our masque tonight, Tony?" Nita queried. + +"Just try to keep me away!" Colletti chuckled. He didn't deem it +necessary to explain that he had deliberately timed his return so +that he would not miss the masque. "In fact," he went on, "I've just +arranged for my costume. By the way," he turned back to the table, +"here's a mask I thought one of you might want to wear tonight. I +happened to find it, when I was unpacking this morning. It's unique, I +think." + +Nita caught up the mask and shook out its deep crimson, almost black, +folds. + +"I'd wear it myself," Colletti added hastily, "but I'm coming as Death +and it wouldn't go very well with my costume." + +"It's lovely!" Nita breathed, her eyes enigmatic. "So rich! So +lustrous! So soft to the touch! Why, it's actually warm! Like living +flesh!" + +Colletti eyed her narrowly. + +"It's been lying in the sunlight, my dear," her husband reminded her. + +"I'd wear it, Tony," Nita spoke dreamily, "but I'm attending the masque +as a Watteau shepherdess and I'm afraid it won't fit into the picture +at all." + +"I'll wear it." Romani relieved his wife of the mask. "As a Florentine +dandy in the days of the Medici I couldn't ask for anything better. +It's just the thing to go with my black outfit." + + * * * * * + +The late-afternoon sunlight vanished. The room became a place of +whispering shadows. Nita shivered. + +"What's the matter?" her husband asked anxiously. + +"I'm getting jittery, I guess," she laughed nervously. "I've been going +too fast a pace lately. I'll be glad when tonight's over. We won't +unmask till we have breakfast at dawn." There was something akin to +fear in her shifting glances. "After tonight I'll be taking a long +rest." + +Colletti unconsciously tautened. + +"Where'd you get this, Tony?" Romani wanted to know, as his long +fingers stroked the silk. + +"In Padua," Colletti replied. "In a little cubbyhole of a shop off +the beaten track. I figuratively fell into it." He chuckled at the +recollection. "The mask struck my fancy as soon as I saw it." He +fingered the card in his vest pocket. "I'll run along now. No need to +ring for Benito. I'll see you tonight." + +They were not hearing him. As though fascinated, hypnotized, +metamorphosed into stone like those who looked upon the Gorgons, they +appeared completely absorbed in the mask. Colletti gathered up his hat +and gloves and stick and silently let himself out. + +"After tonight," he chortled his satisfaction, as he strolled down Park +Avenue, "the house and all the income from the old man's estate will be +mine. I'll live like a lord and throw some parties that'll knock the +town's eyes out." He gloated in anticipation. "The poor, blind fools! +If the mask doesn't work, this will." + +He brought a tiny vial to view and cuddled it in his palm. + +"If the necessity arises, I will drop this into their wine. It is +odorless, colorless, tasteless and leaves no traces. Nita and Tom will +never see another dawn." + + * * * * * + +"You're beautiful tonight, my dear!" Romani rapturously murmured his +adoration. "Divinely lovely, Nita mine!" + +"You're handsome yourself, Tom!" Her eyes glowed like summer stars. + +"I'm mad about you, darling!" + +She adjusted her domino. He caught her in his arms and clasped her +close. Their lips met and clung. + +"I couldn't," he muttered thickly, "I wouldn't live without you, dear!" + +"Be careful!" She struggled for breath and reluctantly shoved him +away. "You're crushing me, Tom! You're mussing me, too! Let me go now! +Please!" + +Unwillingly he released her. From below there floated up to them the +dulcet strains of a stringed ensemble mingled with shrill feminine +laughter, the hoarser mirth of men, the rustling of garments, the +shuffling of feet. The air was heady with intoxicating perfumes. + +"We must be going down!" she panted through Cupid-bow lips. "Are you +ready?" + +"Just about." He slipped on the mask Colletti had brought. "All set! +Let's go!" + +She started and gasped, while her tiny hands flew to her slender +throat. + +"What are you staring at?" he demanded, cold steel suddenly in his +voice. "What's the matter, anyway?" + +"Your eyes, Tom!" she choked. "They're--they're--they're----" She +couldn't go on. + +"You have a bad case of nerves!" he sneered, as he pulled the lower +part of the mask away from his face. "This thing persists in pressing +against my mouth. You'd think it was alive." + +"Your eyes are wild!" she managed to gulp. "You never looked at me like +this, Tom. Oh! Your eyes are hot and cruel! Like Tony's at times!" + +"Like Tony's, eh?" he jeered in a voice that had lost all its +tenderness. "I wish he had stayed on the other side," he continued +vehemently. "I wish he had broken his neck, when he fell into that shop +in Padua. If I never saw the beggar again, it would be too soon." + +Blinking her amazement, she seemed on the point of saying something, +changed her mind and turned to the door. + +"Listen, lady!" He seized her arm and roughly yanked her back. "Don't +be too nice to Tony. Don't encourage him. The rotter has a way with +women." + +"Tom!" She fought vainly to break his hold. "You're bruising my arm! +Let me go! You're hurting me! Let me go! Please!" + +"Not too many dances with Tony!" He glared at her. "Mind, Nita! I don't +like the way he looked at you this afternoon. Nor the way he held your +hands. I felt like slamming him." + +"What in the world has got into you, Tom?" she almost wailed, as she +wriggled free. "You never----" Her strained voice broke. "Why--why," +she stammered her bewilderment, "I actually believe you're jealous of +Tony!" + +"Jealous of Tony and every other man!" he confessed throatily. "I'd +kill you, Nita, before I'd let Tony or anybody else have you." His +hand dropped to the haft of the slender dagger at his waist. "I swear +it!" + +There was no doubting his sincerity. His eyes blazed at her +challengingly through the thin slits in the mask. + +"This thing seems to be blending with my skin." He tugged impatiently +at the silk that rippled to his agitated breathing like a thing alive. +"It seems to work convulsively against my mouth." + +With a stifled cry, Nita staggered from the room like a stricken thing. +For a split second her husband stood glowering after her, fighting for +breath like a spent runner. Then he came to life and darted in her +wake. He reached the top of the broad stairway, as his wife poised at +the bottom like a bird on the point of trying out its wings. + +The next instant, what appeared to be a skeleton, shrouded from head to +foot in the habiliments of the grave and wearing a mask in the form of +a grinning skull, detached itself from the swirling phantasmagoria of +nymphs, priests, satyrs, ballet dancers, monks, pirates, harlequins, +tramps, pierrettes, sailors, imps and other bizarre creatures, to bow +over Nita's hand and whirl her away in a dreamy Strauss waltz. + +"Dancing with him already!" Romani growled, as he leisurely descended +the stairs. "They'd better not drive me too far!" All the while his +fingers were fondling the hilt of his dagger. "They----" He broke off +abruptly, while his angry gaze searched the hilarious throng for the +dainty shepherdess and her gruesome partner. + + * * * * * + +On a flood of delirious revelry Nita catapulted through the heavy +draperies into the dimly lit alcove. Her husband came bursting in after +her. The curtains trembled into place and the sounds of the frenzied +merrymaking came to them as though from far away. + +"How dare you!" Nita expostulated furiously with a stamp of her foot. +"How dare you, Tom!" + +He stood glaring at her fixedly, breathing hard, his slim hands +clenched until the knuckles showed like chalk. Her eyes were pools of +fire. Her breasts heaved tumultuously. + +"You have been hateful tonight, Tom!" She dabbed frantically at her +eyes with a lacy handkerchief. "You have humiliated me terribly!" + +He remained silent. + +"You actually tore me out of Tony's arms just now!" she went on +scathingly. "You actually flung me in here!" + +Romani swallowed hard. + +"You'll have to apologize to Tony." + +He dismissed the suggestion with a shrug. + +"You'll have to!" she insisted. + +"You've been dancing with Tony all night!" he rasped savagely. "Every +time I looked up, it seemed, he was holding you in his arms with his +dirty eyes undressing you." + +"Tom!" + +"I asked you not to dance with him so often." + +"You're being ridiculous!" + +"You've been acting deliberately contrary to my wishes." He didn't hear +her. "I pleaded with you but you persisted. It made my blood boil. I +saw red, while Tony exulted. Finally, I commanded you to dance no more +with him. After all, you are my wife, you know. You laughed in my face." + +She tossed her head like a spoiled child. + +"Hear it, Nita!" He eagerly took a step toward her. "The last dance! +Shall we waltz it together?" + +"No!" She meant to punish him for his show of jealousy. + +Romani recoiled as though from a slap in the face. + +"I shall dance it with Tony," she told him airily. "Let me pass!" + +She started to brush past her husband, as the draperies parted and +Colletti appeared. + +"Nita," he began, "you----" + +With a nerve-tearing snarl, Romani flashed his slender-bladed dagger +and lunged. + +"Oh!" Nita started to scream. "Tom, you----" + +Her strangled shriek ended in a gurgling gasp, as the dagger sheathed +itself to the hilt in her bosom. Blood gushed and bubbled around the +buried blade. An expression of mingled bewilderment, surprize and +incredulity flitted over her ghastly, painted face, as Romani caught +his crumpling wife in his arms. + +"Nita!" he croaked, his red rage dropping from him like a discarded +cloak. "Speak to me, sweet! Nita! Nita! Nita! Good God! What have I +done?" + +"You've killed her, Tom!" Colletti could not keep the oily satisfaction +from his voice. "You have murdered her!" + +"Nita!" Romani was beside himself with grief. "Speak to me, dear! I +wouldn't hurt you! I wouldn't! I'd die first!" + +He covered her face with kisses. + +"Nita! Nita! Nita!" + +She hung limp in his embrace. + +"Speak to me, darling!" he beseeched, as he tore off his mask and flung +it across the shadowy alcove. "I love you! I love you! Speak to me, +Nita!" + +"It's no use, Tom!" Colletti mocked him. "She's dead!" + +Romani seemed to become aware of the other man's presence. + +"This means the electric chair for you, Tom," Colletti cruelly reminded +his cousin. "You have murdered her." + +For clock-ticks that seemed eternities Romani stared hard at the +speaker. Gently he lowered his dead wife to the thick-piled rug. +Carefully he pulled the dagger from her breast. Tenderly he closed her +eyes, crossed her hands on her bloody bosom and straightened her limbs. + +"Thanks to the mask," Colletti pointed, "you have murdered your wife, +Tom." He handed the anguished man the time-yellowed card. "Soon you'll +be walking through that little green door." + +"I can't live without you, Nita!" Romani declared brokenly, as he +deciphered the faded legend. "I won't!" + +"The state will attend to that, Tom," Colletti jeered. "You need have +no worries on that score." + + * * * * * + +Romani retrieved the discarded mask and, whirling on Colletti, thrust +it at him. + +"Put it on!" he ordered bruskly and tickled his cousin's ribs with his +blood-smeared dagger. "Put it on or I'll drive this steel into your +devil's heart!" + +Colletti paled and gulped and hesitated. + +"Put it on!" Romani reiterated huskily, increasing the pressure of +the dagger, while with his free hand he tore the death mask from his +cousin's face. "Hurry!" + +With trembling fingers Colletti adjusted the red silk mask over his +twitching features. + +"_Who wears this mask!_" Romani growled, as through the muted strains +of the waltz the weary revelers chorused _Good-night, Ladies_. "It's +your turn now, Tony! _Is doomed to slay!_ Murder, Tony! _Whom he loves +best!_ That's yourself, Tony! You're going to kill yourself! You've +never loved anybody but yourself! _Ere break of day!_ Which isn't far +off! You'll have to hurry, Tony! You haven't much time!" + +Like a man suffering the tortures of the damned, Colletti's whole body +was writhing horribly. His palsied hands clawed at his throat. He +appeared to be wrestling with an invisible antagonist. + +"_Whom he loves best!_" Romani repeated hoarsely. "You're taking your +own worthless life, Tony! Hurry!" + +The crimson mask moving to his labored breathing, Colletti fumbled +inside the hideous grave garments he was wearing. His groping hands +brought a tiny vial to light. + +"_Is doomed to slay!_" Romani hissed, stepping back, for the coercion +of the dagger was no longer needed. "_Whom he loves best!_" + +While Romani watched him balefully, Colletti slowly lifted the +fluttering mask with his left hand, while with his right he tilted the +bottle on his mouth. With a hollow gulp he drained its contents. His +hands dropped like leaden plummets. For a split second he steadied. +Then a tremor shook him from heels to crown. He swung half-way around, +recovered, his knees buckled and he collapsed on his face. Romani +rolled him over, nudged him callously with his foot, stooped and +listened to his heart. + +"Dead!" he mumbled and straightened. "Gone to the hell where he +belongs!" + +He sank on his knees beside his dead wife. Tenderly he kissed her cold +eyes, her carmined lips, the little hollow at the base of her throat. + +"Coming, Nita!" he spoke as though replying to an urgent summons and +plunged the dagger into his own heart. "Com----" + +He pitched forward over the dead woman. The music and the singing +ceased. The gray dawning peered in at the window. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76592 *** |