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The Gloved Hand

by Burton Egbert Stevenson · English · Gutenberg #13372 · 403,821 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The Gloved Hand

Author: Burton Egbert Stevenson


        
Release date: September 4, 2004 [eBook #13372]
                Most recently updated: October 28, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GLOVED HAND ***

[Illustration: Sparks fell upon the shoulders of two white-robed
figures (_page_ 9)]




THE GLOVED HAND

_A DETECTIVE STORY_


BY BURTON E. STEVENSON


Author of "The Holladay Case," "The Marathon Mystery," "The Mystery of
the Boule Cabinet," etc.


_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THOMAS FOGARTY_



1913



This story was published in _The Popular Magazine_ under the title of
"The Mind Master."




BY THE SAME AUTHOR


    The Marathon Mystery
    The Holladay Case
    That Affair at Elizabeth
    Affairs of State
    At Odds with the Regent
    Cadets of Gascony
    The Path of Honor
    A Soldier of Virginia
    The Heritage
    The Quest for the Rose of Sharon
    The Girl with the Blue Sailor
    The Mystery of the Boule Cabinet
    The Gloved Hand




CONTENTS


     CHAPTER

        I THE FALLING STAR
       II A STRANGE NEIGHBOUR
      III THE DRAMA IN THE GARDEN
       IV ENTER FREDDIE SWAIN
        V A CALL FOR HELP
       VI THE SCREAM IN THE NIGHT
      VII THE TRAGEDY
     VIII A FRESH ENIGMA
       IX FIRST STEPS
        X THE WHITE PRIEST OF SIVA
       XI SWAIN'S STORY
      XII GUESSES AT THE RIDDLE
     XIII FRANCISCO SILVA
      XIV THE FINGER-PRINTS
       XV THE CHAIN TIGHTENS
      XVI MISS VAUGHAN'S STORY
     XVII THE VERDICT
    XVIII BUILDING A THEORY
      XIX THE YOGI CONQUERS
       XX CHECKMATE!
      XXI THE VISION IN THE CRYSTAL
     XXII THE SUMMONS
    XXIII DEADLY PERIL
     XXIV KISMET!
      XXV THE BLOOD-STAINED GLOVE
     XXVI THE MYSTERY CLEARS
    XXVII THE END OF THE CASE




ILLUSTRATIONS


    SPARKS FELL UPON THE SHOULDERS OF THE TWO WHITE FIGURES (page 9)

    "I'M LAWYER ENOUGH TO KNOW," HE SAID, "THAT A QUESTION LIKE THAT IS
    NOT PERMISSIBLE"

    "OH, MASTER RECEIVE ME!"

    "I KNEW THAT I WAS LOST"




CHAPTER I

THE FALLING STAR


I was genuinely tired when I got back to the office, that Wednesday
afternoon, for it had been a trying day--the last of the series of
trying days which had marked the progress of the Minturn case; and my
feeling of depression was increased by the fact that our victory had
not been nearly so complete as I had hoped it would be. Besides, there
was the heat; always, during the past ten days, there had been the
heat, unprecedented for June, with the thermometer climbing higher and
higher and breaking a new record every day.

As I threw off coat and hat and dropped into the chair before my desk,
I could see the heat-waves quivering up past the open windows from the
fiery street below. I turned away and closed my eyes, and tried to
evoke a vision of white surf falling upon the beach, of tall trees
swaying in the breeze, of a brook dropping gently between green banks.

    "Fountains that frisk and sprinkle
    The moss they overspill;
    Pools that the breezes crinkle,"...

and then I stopped, for the door had opened. I unclosed my eyes to
see the office-boy gazing at me in astonishment. He was a well-trained
boy, and recovered himself in an instant.

"Your mail, sir," he said, laid it at my elbow, and went out.

I turned to the letters with an interest the reverse of lively. The
words of Henley's ballade were still running through my head--

    "Vale-lily and periwinkle;
    Wet stone-crop on the sill;
    The look of leaves a-twinkle
    With windlets,"...

Again I stopped, for again the door opened, and again the office-boy
appeared.

"Mr. Godfrey, sir," he said, and close upon the words, Jim Godfrey
entered, looking as fresh and cool and invigorating as the fountains
and brooks and pools I had been thinking of.

"How do you do it, Godfrey?" I asked, as he sat down.

"Do what?"

"Keep so fit."

"By getting a good sleep every night. Do you?"

I groaned as I thought of the inferno I called my bedroom.

"I haven't really slept for a week," I said.

"Well, you're going to sleep to-night. That's the reason I'm here. I
saw you in court this afternoon--one glance was enough."

"Yes," I assented; "one glance would be. But what's the proposition?"

"I'm staying at a little place I've leased for the summer up on the
far edge of the Bronx. I'm going to take you up with me to-night and
I'm going to keep you there till Monday. That will give you five
nights' sleep and four days' rest. Don't you think you deserve it?"

"Yes," I agreed with conviction, "I do;" and I cast my mind rapidly
over the affairs of the office. With the Minturn case ended, there was
really no reason why I should not take a few days off.

"You'll come, then?" said Godfrey, who had been following my thoughts.
"Don't be afraid," he added, seeing that I still hesitated. "You won't
find it dull."

I looked at him, for he was smiling slightly and his eyes were very
bright.

"Won't I?"

"No," he said, "for I've discovered certain phenomena in the
neighbourhood which I think will interest you."

When Godfrey spoke in that tone, he could mean only one thing, and my
last vestige of hesitation vanished.

"All right," I said; "I'll come."

"Good. I'll call for you at the Marathon about ten-thirty. That's the
earliest I can get away," and in another moment he was gone.

So was my fatigue, and I turned with a zest to my letters and to the
arrangements necessary for a three days' absence. Then I went up to my
rooms, put a few things into a suit-case, got into fresh clothes,
mounted to the Astor roof-garden for dinner, and a little after ten
was back again at the Marathon. I had Higgins bring my luggage down,
and sat down in the entrance-porch to wait for Godfrey.

Just across the street gleamed the lights of the police-station where
he and I had had more than one adventure. For Godfrey was the
principal police reporter of the _Record_; it was to him that journal
owed those brilliant and glowing columns in which the latest mystery
was described and dissected in a way which was a joy alike to the
intellect and to the artistic instinct. For the editorial policy of
the _Record_, for its attitude toward politics, Wall Street, the
trusts, "society," I had only aversion and disgust; but whenever the
town was shaken with a great criminal mystery, I never missed an
issue.

Godfrey and I had been thrown together first in the Holladay case,
and that was the beginning of a friendship which had strengthened with
the years. Then came his brilliant work in solving the Marathon
mystery, in which I had also become involved. I had appealed to him
for help in connection with that affair at Elizabeth; and he had
cleared up the remarkable circumstances surrounding the death of my
friend, Philip Vantine, in the affair of the Boule cabinet. So I had
come to turn to him instinctively whenever I found myself confronting
one of those intricate problems which every lawyer has sometimes to
untangle.

Reciprocally, Godfrey sometimes sought my assistance; but, of course,
it was only with a very few of his cases that I had any personal
connection. The others I had to be content to follow, as the general
public did, in the columns of the Record, certain that it would be the
first to reach the goal. Godfrey had a peculiar advantage over the
other police reporters in that he had himself, years before, been a
member of the detective force, and had very carefully fostered and
extended the friendships made at that time. He was looked on rather as
an insider, and he was always scrupulously careful to give the members
of the force every bit of credit they deserved--sometimes considerably
more than they deserved.

In consequence, he had the entree at times when other reporters were
rigorously barred.

It was nearly eleven o'clock before Godfrey arrived that evening, but
I was neither surprised nor impatient. I knew how many and unexpected
were the demands upon his time; and I always found a lively interest
in watching the comings and goings at the station across the
way--where, alas, the entrances far exceeded the exits! But finally, a
car swung in from the Avenue at a speed that drew my eyes, and I saw
that Godfrey was driving it.

"Jump in," he said, pushing out his clutch and pausing at the curb;
and as I grabbed my suit-case and sprang to the seat beside him, he
let the clutch in again and we were off. "No time to lose," he added,
as he changed into high, and turned up Seventh Avenue.

At the park, he turned westward to the Circle, and then northward
again out Amsterdam Avenue. There was little traffic, and we were soon
skimming along at a speed which made me watch the cross-streets
fearfully. In a few minutes we were across the Harlem and running
northward along the uninteresting streets beyond. At this moment, it
occurred to me that Godfrey was behaving singularly as though he were
hastening to keep an appointment; but I judged it best not to
distract his attention from the street before us, and restrained the
question which rose to my lips.

At last, the built-up portion of the town was left behind; we passed
little houses in little yards, then meadows and gardens and strips of
woodland, with a house only here and there. We were no longer on a
paved street, but on a macadam road--a road apparently little used,
for our lamps, sending long streamers of light ahead of us, disclosed
far empty stretches, without vehicle of any kind. There was no moon,
and the stars were half-obscured by a haze of cloud, while along the
horizon to the west, I caught the occasional glow of distant
lightning.

And then the sky was suddenly blotted out, and I saw that we were
running along an avenue of lofty trees. The road at the left was
bordered by a high stone wall, evidently the boundary of an important
estate. We were soon past this, and I felt the speed of the car
slacken.

"Hold tight!" said Godfrey, turned sharply through an open gateway,
and brought the car to a stop. Then, snatching out his watch, he
leaned forward and held it in the glare of the side-lamp. "Five
minutes to twelve," he said. "We can just make it. Come on, Lester."

He sprang from the car, and I followed, realising that this was no
time for questions.

"This way," he said, and held out a hand to me, or I should have lost
him in the darkness. We were in a grove of lofty trees, and at the
foot of one of these, Godfrey paused. "Up with, you," he added; "and
don't lose any time," and he placed my hand upon the rung of a ladder.

Too amazed to open my lips, I obeyed. The ladder was a long one, and,
as I went up and up, I could feel Godfrey mounting after me. I am not
expert at climbing ladders, even by daylight, and my progress was not
rapid enough to suit my companion, for he kept urging me on. But at
last, with a breath of relief, I felt that I had reached the top.

"What now?" I asked.

"Do you see that big straight limb running out to your right?"

"Yes," I said, for my eyes were growing accustomed to the darkness.

"Sit down on it, and hold on to the ladder."

I did so somewhat gingerly, and in a minute Godfrey was beside me.

"Now," he said, in a voice low and tense with excitement, "look out,
straight ahead. And remember to hold on to the ladder."

I could see the hazy mist of the open sky, and from the fitful light
along the horizon, I knew that we were looking toward the west. Below
me was a mass of confused shadows, which I took for clumps of
shrubbery.

Then I felt Godfrey's hand close upon my arm.

"Look!" he said.

For an instant, I saw nothing; then my eyes caught what seemed to be a
new star in the heavens; a star bright, sharp, steel blue--

"Why, it's moving!" I cried.

He answered with a pressure of the fingers.

The star was indeed moving; not rising, not drifting with the breeze,
but descending, descending slowly, slowly.... I watched it with parted
lips, leaning forward, my eyes straining at that falling light.

"Falling" is not the word; nor is "drifting." It did not fall and it
did not drift. It deliberately descended, in a straight line, at a
regular speed, calmly and evenly, as though animated by some definite
purpose. Lower and lower it sank; then it seemed to pause, to hover in
the air, and the next instant it burst into a shower of sparks and
vanished.

And those sparks fell upon the shoulders of two white-robed figures,
standing apparently in space, their arms rigidly extended, their faces
raised toward the heavens.




CHAPTER II

A STRANGE NEIGHBOUR


Mechanically I followed Godfrey down the ladder, and, guided by the
flaring lights, made my way back to the car. I climbed silently into
my seat, while Godfrey started the motor. Then we rolled slowly up the
driveway, and stopped before the door of a house standing deep among
the trees.

"Wait for me here a minute," Godfrey said, and, when I had got out,
handed me my suit-case, and then drove the car on past the house, no
doubt to its garage.

He was soon back, opened the house-door, switched on the lights, and
waved me in.

"Here we are," he said. "I'll show you your room," and he led the way
up the stairs, opening a door in the hall at the top. "This is it," he
added, and switched on the lights here also. "The bath-room is right
at the end of the hall. Wash up, if you need to, and then come down,
and we will have a good-night smoke."

It was a pleasant room, with the simplest of furniture. The
night-breeze ruffled the curtains at the windows, and filled the room
with the cool odour of the woods--how different it was from the odour
of dirty asphalt! But I was in no mood to linger there--I wanted an
explanation of that strange light and of those two white-robed
figures. So I paused only to open my grip, change into a
lounging-coat, and brush off the dust of the journey. Then I hastened
downstairs.

Godfrey met me at the stair-foot, and led the way into what was
evidently a lounging-room. A tray containing some cold meat, bread and
butter, cheese, and a few other things, stood on a side-table, and to
this Godfrey added two bottles of Bass.

"No doubt you're hungry after the ride," he said. "I know I am," and
he opened the bottles. "Help yourself," and he proceeded to make
himself a sandwich. "You see, I live the simple life out here. I've
got an old couple to look after the place--Mr. and Mrs. Hargis. Mrs.
Hargis is an excellent cook--but to ask her to stay awake till
midnight would be fiendish cruelty. So she leaves me a lunch in the
ice-box, and goes quietly off to bed. I'll give you some berries for
breakfast such as you don't often get in New York--and the cream--wait
till you try it! Have a cigar?"

"No," I said, sitting down very content with the world, "I've got my
pipe," and I proceeded to fill up.

Godfrey took down his own pipe from the mantelshelf and sat down
opposite me. A moment later, two puffs of smoke circled toward the
ceiling.

"Now," I said, looking at him, "go ahead and tell me about it."

Godfrey watched a smoke-ring whirl and break before he answered.

"About ten days ago," he began, "just at midnight, I happened to
glance out of my bedroom window, as I was turning in, and caught a
glimpse of a queer light apparently sinking into the tree-tops. I
thought nothing of it; but two nights later, at exactly the same time,
I saw it again. I watched for it the next night, and again saw
it--just for an instant, you understand, as it formed high in the air
and started downward. The next night I was up a tree and saw more of
it; but it was not until night before last that I found the place from
which the whole spectacle could be seen. The trees are pretty thick
all around here, and I doubt if there is any other place from which
those two figures would be visible."

"Then there _were_ two figures!" I said, for I had begun to think that
my eyes had deceived me.

"There certainly were."

"Standing in space?"

"Oh, no; standing on a very substantial roof."

"But what is it all about?" I questioned. "Why should that light
descend every midnight? What _is_ the light, anyway?"

"That's what I've brought you out here to find out. You've got four
clear days ahead of you--and I'll be at your disposal from midnight
on, if you happen to need me."

"But you must have some sort of idea about it," I persisted. "At least
you know whose roof those figures were standing on."

"Yes, I know that. The roof belongs to a man named Worthington
Vaughan. Ever hear of him?"

I shook my head.

"Neither had I," said Godfrey, "up to the time I took this place. Even
yet, I don't know very much. He's the last of an old family, who made
their money in real estate, and are supposed to have kept most of it.
He's a widower with one daughter. His wife died about ten years ago,
and since then he has been a sort of recluse, and has the reputation
of being queer. He has been abroad a good deal, and it is only during
the last year that he has lived continuously at this place next door,
which is called Elmhurst. That's about all I've been able to find out.
He certainly lives a retired life, for his place has a twelve-foot
wall around it, and no visitors need apply."

"How do you know?"

"I tried to make a neighbourly call yesterday, and wasn't admitted.
Mr. Vaughan was engaged. Getting ready for his regular midnight
hocus-pocus, perhaps!"

I took a meditative puff or two.

"_Is_ it hocus-pocus, Godfrey?" I asked, at last. "If it is, it's a
mighty artistic piece of work."

"And if it isn't hocus-pocus, what is it?" Godfrey retorted. "A
spiritual manifestation?"

I confess I had no answer ready. Ideas which seem reasonable enough
when put dimly to oneself, become absurd sometimes when definitely
clothed with words.

"There are just two possibilities," Godfrey went on. "Either it's
hocus-pocus, or it isn't. If it is, it is done for some purpose. Two
men don't go out on a roof every night at midnight and fire off a
Roman candle and wave their arms around, just for the fun of the
thing."

"It wasn't a Roman candle," I pointed out. "A Roman candle is visible
when it's going up, and bursts and vanishes at the top of its flight.
That light didn't behave that way at all. It formed high in the air,
remained there stationary for a moment, gradually grew brighter, and
then started to descend. It didn't fall, it came down slowly, and at
an even rate of speed. And it didn't drift away before the breeze, as
it would have done if it had been merely floating in the air. It
descended in a straight line. It gave me the impression of moving as
though a will actuated it--as though it had a distinct purpose. There
was something uncanny about it!"

Godfrey nodded thoughtful agreement.

"I have felt that," he said, "and I admit that the behaviour of the
light is extraordinary. But that doesn't prove it supernatural. I
don't believe in the supernatural. Especially I don't believe that any
two mortals could arrange with the heavenly powers to make a
demonstration like that every night at midnight for their benefit.
That's _too_ absurd!"

"It is absurd," I assented, "and yet it isn't much more absurd than to
suppose that two men would go out on the roof every night to watch a
Roman candle, as you call it, come down. Unless, of course, they're
lunatics."

"No," said Godfrey, "I don't believe they're lunatics--at least, not
both of them. I have a sort of theory about it; but it's a pretty thin
one, and I want you to do a little investigating on your own account
before I tell you what it is. It's time we went to bed. Don't get up
in the morning till you're ready to. Probably I'll not see you till
night; I have some work to do that will take me off early. But Mrs.
Hargis will make you comfortable, and I'll be back in time to join you
in another look at the Roman candle!"

He uttered the last words jestingly, but I could see that the jest was
a surface one, and that, at heart, he was deeply serious. Evidently,
the strange star had impressed him even more than it had me--though
perhaps in a different manner.

I found that it had impressed me deeply enough, for I dreamed about it
that night--dreamed, and woke, only to fall asleep and dream and wake
again. I do not remember that I saw any more in the dream than I had
seen with my waking eyes, but each time I awoke trembling with
apprehension and bathed in perspiration. As I lay there the second
time, staring up into the darkness and telling myself I was a fool,
there came a sudden rush of wind among the trees outside; then a vivid
flash of lightning and an instant rending crash of thunder, and then a
steady downpour of rain. I could guess how the gasping city welcomed
it, and I lay for a long time listening to it, as it dripped from the
leaves and beat against the house. A delightful coolness filled the
room, an odour fresh and clean; and when, at last, with nerves
quieted, I fell asleep again, it was not to awaken until the sun was
bright against my curtains.




CHAPTER III

THE DRAMA IN THE GARDEN


I glanced at my watch, as soon as I was out of bed, and saw that it
was after ten o'clock. All the sleep I had lost during the hot nights
of the previous week had been crowded into the last nine hours; I felt
like a new man, and when, half an hour later, I ran downstairs, it was
with such an appetite for breakfast as I had not known for a long
time.

There was no one in the hall, and I stepped out through the open door
to the porch beyond, and stood looking about me. The house was built
in the midst of a grove of beautiful old trees, some distance back
from the road, of which I could catch only a glimpse. It was a small
house, a story and a half in height, evidently designed only as a
summer residence.

"Good morning, sir," said a voice behind me, and I turned to find a
pleasant-faced, grey-haired woman standing in the doorway.

"Good morning," I responded. "I suppose you are Mrs. Hargis?"

"Yes, sir; and your breakfast's ready."

"Has Mr. Godfrey gone?"

"Yes, sir; he left about an hour ago. He was afraid his machine would
waken you."

"It didn't," I said, as I followed her back along the hall. "Nothing
short of an earthquake would have wakened me. Ah, this is fine!"

She had shown me into a pleasant room, where a little table was set
near an open window. It made quite a picture, with its white cloth and
shining dishes and plate of yellow butter, and bowl of crimson
berries, and--but I didn't linger to admire it. I don't know when I
have enjoyed breakfast so much. Mrs. Hargis, after bringing in the
eggs and bacon and setting a little pot of steaming coffee at my
elbow, sensibly left me alone to the enjoyment of it. Ever since that
morning, I have realised that, to start the day exactly right, a man
should breakfast by himself, amid just such surroundings, leisurely
and without distraction. A copy of the morning's _Record_ was lying on
the table, but I did not even open it. I did not care what had
happened in the world the day before!

At last, ineffably content, I stepped out upon the driveway at the
side of the house, and strolled away among the trees. At the end of a
few minutes, I came to the high stone wall which bounded the estate
of the mysterious Worthington Vaughan, and suddenly the wish came to
me to see what lay behind it. Without much difficulty, I found the
tree with the ladder against it, which we had mounted the night
before. It was a long ladder, even in the daytime, but at last I
reached the top, and settled myself on the limb against which it
rested. Assuring myself that the leaves hid me from any chance
observer, I looked down into the grounds beyond the wall.

There was not much to see. The grounds were extensive and had
evidently been laid out with care, but there was an air of neglect
about them, as though the attention they received was careless and
inadequate. The shrubbery was too dense, grass was invading the walks,
here and there a tree showed a dead limb or a broken one. Near the
house was a wide lawn, designed, perhaps, as a tennis-court or
croquet-ground, with rustic seats under the trees at the edge.

About the house itself was a screen of magnificent elms, which
doubtless gave the place its name, and which shut the house in
completely. All I could see of it was one corner of the roof. This,
however, stood out clear against the sky, and it was here, evidently,
that the mysterious midnight figures had been stationed. As I looked
at it, I realised the truth of Godfrey's remark that probably from no
other point of vantage but just this would they be visible.

It did not take me many minutes to exhaust the interest of this empty
prospect, more especially since my perch was anything but comfortable,
and I was just about to descend, when two white-robed figures appeared
at the edge of the open space near the house and walked slowly across
it. I settled back into my place with a tightening of interest which
made me forget its discomfort, for that these were the two
star-worshippers I did not doubt.

The distance was so great that their faces were the merest blurs; but
I could see that one leaned heavily upon the arm of the other, as
much, or so it seemed to me, for moral as for physical support. I
could see, too, that the hair of the feebler man was white, while that
of his companion was jet black. The younger man's face appeared so
dark that I suspected he wore a beard, and his figure was erect and
vigorous, in the prime of life, virile and full of power.

He certainly dominated the older man. I watched them attentively, as
they paced back and forth, and the dependence of the one upon the
other was very manifest. Both heads were bent as though in earnest
talk, and for perhaps half an hour they walked slowly up and down.
Then, at a sign of fatigue from the older figure, the other led him
to a garden-bench, where both sat down.

The elder man, I told myself, was no doubt Worthington Vaughan. Small
wonder he was considered queer if he dressed habitually in a white
robe and worshipped the stars at midnight! There was something monkish
about the habits which he and his companion wore, and the thought
flashed into my mind that perhaps they were members of some religious
order, or some Oriental cult or priesthood. And both of them, I added
to myself, must be a little mad!

As I watched, the discussion gradually grew more animated, and the
younger man, springing to his feet, paced excitedly up and down,
touching his forehead with his fingers from time to time, and raising
his hands to heaven, as though calling it as a witness to his words.
At last the other made a sign of assent, got to his feet, bent his
head reverently as to a spiritual superior and walked slowly away
toward the house. The younger man stood gazing after him until he
passed from sight, then resumed his rapid pacing up and down,
evidently deeply moved.

At last from the direction of the house came the flutter of a white
robe. For a moment, I thought it was the old man returning; then as it
emerged fully from among the trees, I saw that it was a woman--a
young woman, I guessed, from her slimness, and from the mass of dark
hair which framed her face. And then I remembered that Godfrey had
told me that Worthington Vaughan had a daughter.

The man was at her side in an instant, held out his hand, and said
something, which caused her to shrink away. She half-turned, as though
to flee, but the other laid his hand upon her arm, speaking earnestly,
and, after a moment, she permitted him to lead her to a seat. He
remained standing before her, sometimes raising his hands to heaven,
sometimes pointing toward the house, sometimes bending close above
her, and from time to time making that peculiar gesture of touching
his fingers to his forehead, whose meaning I could not guess. But I
could guess at the torrent of passionate words which poured from his
lips, and at the eager light which was in his eyes!

The woman sat quite still, with bowed head, listening, but making no
sign either of consent or refusal. Gradually, the man grew more
confident, and at last stooped to take her hand, but she drew it
quickly away, and, raising her head, said something slowly and with
emphasis. He shook his head savagely, then, after a rapid turn up and
down, seemed to agree, bowed low to her, and went rapidly away toward
the house. The woman sat for some time where he had left her, her face
in her hands; then, with a gesture of weariness and discouragement,
crossed the lawn and disappeared among the trees.

For a long time I sat there motionless, my eyes on the spot where she
had disappeared, trying to understand. What was the meaning of the
scene? What was it the younger man had urged so passionately upon her,
but at which she had rebelled? What was it for which he had pled so
earnestly? The obvious answer was that he pled for her love, that he
had urged her to become his wife; but the answer did not satisfy me.
His attitude had been passionate enough, but it had scarcely been
lover-like. It had more of admonition, of warning, even of threat,
than of entreaty in it. It was not the attitude of a lover to his
mistress, but of a master to his pupil.

And what had been the answer, wrung from her finally by his
insistence--the answer to which he had at first violently dissented,
and then reluctantly agreed?

No doubt, if these people had been garbed in the clothes of every day,
I should have felt at the outset that all this was none of my
business, and have crept down the ladder and gone away. But their
strange dress gave to the scene an air at once unreal and theatrical,
and not for an instant had I felt myself an intruder. It was as though
I were looking at the rehearsal of a drama designed for the public
gaze and enacted upon a stage; or, more properly, a pantomime, dim and
figurative, but most impressive. Might it not, indeed, be a rehearsal
of some sort--private theatricals--make-believe? But that scene at
midnight--that could not be make-believe! No, nor was this scene in
the garden. It was in earnest--in deadliest earnest; there was about
it something sinister and threatening; and it was the realisation of
this--the realisation that there was something here not right,
something demanding scrutiny--which kept me chained to my
uncomfortable perch, minute after minute.

But nothing further happened, and I realised, at last, that if I was
to escape an agonising cramp in the leg, I must get down. I put my
feet on the ladder, and then paused for a last look about the grounds.
My eye was caught by a flutter of white among the trees. Someone was
walking along one of the paths; in a moment, straining forward, I saw
it was the woman, and that she was approaching the wall.

And then, as she came nearer, I saw that she was not a woman at all,
but a girl--a girl of eighteen or twenty, to whom the flowing robes
gave, at a distance, the effect of age. I caught only a glimpse of
her face before it was hidden by a clump of shrubbery, but that
glimpse told me that it was a face to set the pulses leaping. I
strained still farther forward, waiting until she should come into
sight again....

Along the path she came, with the sunlight about her, kissing her
hair, her lips, her cheeks--and the next instant her eyes were staring
upwards into mine.

I could not move. I could only stare down at her. I saw the hot colour
sweep across her face; I saw her hand go to her bosom; I saw her turn
to flee. Then, to my amazement, she stopped, as though arrested by a
sudden thought, turned toward me again, and raised her eyes
deliberately to mine.

For fully a minute she stood there, her gaze searching and intent, as
though she would read my soul; then her face hardened with sudden
resolution. Again she put her hand to her bosom, turned hastily toward
the wall, and disappeared behind it.

The next instant, something white came flying over it, and fell on the
grass beneath my tree. Staring down at it, I saw it was a letter.




CHAPTER IV

ENTER FREDDIE SWAIN


I fell, rather than climbed, down the ladder, snatched the white
missile from the grass, and saw that it was, indeed, a sealed and
addressed envelope. I had somehow expected that address to include
either Godfrey's name or mine; but it did neither. The envelope bore
these words:

    Mr. Frederic Swain,
      1010 Fifth Avenue,
        New York City.

    If not at this address,
    please try the Calumet Club.

I sat down on the lowest rung of the ladder, whistling softly to
myself. For Freddie Swain's address was no longer 1010 Fifth Avenue,
nor was he to be found in the luxurious rooms of the Calumet Club. In
fact, it was nearly a year since he had entered either place. For some
eight hours of every week-day, he laboured in the law offices of Royce
& Lester; he slept in a little room on the top floor of the Marathon;
three hours of every evening, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays
excepted, were spent at the law school of the University of New York;
and the remaining hours of the twenty-four in haunts much less
conspicuous and expensive than the Calumet Club.

For Freddie Swain had taken one of these toboggan slides down the hill
of fortune which sometimes happen to the most deserving. His father,
old General Orlando Swain, had, all his life, put up a pompous front
and was supposed to have inherited a fortune from somewhere; but, when
he died, this edifice was found to be all façade and no foundation,
and Freddie inherited nothing but debts. He had been expensively
educated for a career as an Ornament of Society, but he found that
career cut short, for Society suddenly ceased to find him ornamental.
I suppose there were too many marriageable daughters about!

I am bound to say that he took the blow well. Instead of attempting to
cling to the skirts of Society as a vendor of champagne or an
organiser of fêtes champêtres, he--to use his own words--decided to
cut the whole show.

Our firm had been named as the administrators of the Swain estate, and
when the storm was over and we were sitting among the ruins, Freddie
expressed the intention of going to work.

"What will you do?" Mr. Royce inquired. "Ever had any training in
making money?"

"No, only in spending it," retorted Freddie, easily. "But I can
learn. I was thinking of studying law. That's a good trade, isn't it?"

"Splendid!" assented Mr. Royce, warmly. "And there are always so many
openings. You see, nobody studies law--lawyers are as scarce as hen's
teeth."

"Just the same, I think I'll have a try at it," said Freddie,
sturdily. "There's always room at the top, you know," he added, with a
grin. "I can go to the night-school at the University, and I ought to
be able to earn enough to live on, as a clerk or something. I know how
to read and write."

"That will help, of course," agreed Mr. Royce. "But I'm afraid that,
right at first, anyway, you can scarcely hope to live in the style to
which you have been accustomed."

Freddie turned on him with fire in his eyes.

"Look here," he said, "suppose you give me a job. I'll do my work and
earn my wages--try me and see."

There was something in his face that touched me, and I glanced at Mr.
Royce. I saw that his gruffness was merely a mantle to cloak his real
feelings; and the result was that Freddie Swain was set to work as a
copying-clerk at a salary of fifteen dollars a week. He applied
himself to his work with an energy that surprised me, and I learned
that he was taking the night-course at the University, as he had
planned. Finally, one night, I met him as I was turning in to my rooms
at the Marathon, and found that he had rented a cubby-hole on the top
floor of the building. After that, I saw him occasionally, and when
six months had passed, was forced to acknowledge that he was
thoroughly in earnest. I happened to remark to Mr. Royce one day that
Swain seemed to be making good.

"Yes," my partner agreed; "I didn't think he had it in him. He had a
rude awakening from his dream of affluence, and it seems to have done
him good."

But, somehow, I had fancied that it was from more than a dream of
affluence he had been awakened; and now, as I sat staring at this
letter, I began to understand dimly what the other dream had been.

The first thing was to get the letter into his hands, for I was
certain that it was a cry for help. I glanced at my watch and saw that
it was nearly half past twelve. Swain, I knew, would be at lunch, and
was not due at the office until one o'clock. Slipping the letter into
my pocket, I turned back to the house, and found Mrs. Hargis standing
on the front porch.

"I declare, I thought you was lost, Mr. Lester," she said. "I was
just going to send William to look for you. Ain't you 'most starved?"

"Scarcely starved, Mrs. Hargis," I said, "but with a very creditable
appetite, when you consider that I ate breakfast only two hours ago."

"Well, come right in," she said. "Your lunch is ready."

"I suppose there's a telephone somewhere about?" I asked, as I
followed her through the hall.

"Yes, sir, in here," and she opened the door into a little room fitted
up as a study. "It's here Mr. Godfrey works sometimes."

"Thank you," I said, "I've got to call up the office. I won't be but a
minute."

I found Godfrey's number stamped on the cover of the telephone book,
and then called the office. As I had guessed, Swain was not yet back
from lunch, and I left word for him to call me as soon as he came in.
Then I made my way to the dining-room, where Mrs. Hargis was awaiting
me.

"How does one get out here from New York, Mrs. Hargis?" I asked, as I
sat down. "That is, if one doesn't happen to own a motor car?"

"Why, very easily, sir. Take the Third Avenue elevated to the end of
the line, and then the trolley. It runs along Dryden Road, just two
blocks over."

"Where does one get off?"

"At Prospect Street, sir."

"And what is this place called?"

"This is the old Bennett place, sir."

"Thank you. And let me tell you, Mrs. Hargis," I added, "that I have
never tasted a better salad."

Her kindly old face flushed with pleasure.

"It's nice of you to say that, sir," she said. "We have our own
garden, and William takes a great pride in it."

"I must go and see it," I said. "I've always fancied I'd like to
potter around in a garden. I must see if Mr. Godfrey won't let me in
on this."

"He spends an hour in it every morning. Sometimes he can hardly tear
himself away. I certainly do like Mr. Godfrey."

"So do I," I agreed heartily. "He's a splendid fellow--one of the
nicest, squarest men I ever met--and a friend worth having."

"He's all of that, sir," she agreed, and stood for a moment, clasping
and unclasping her hands nervously, as though there was something else
she wished to say. But she evidently thought better of it. "There's
the bell, sir," she added. "Please ring if there's anything else you
want," and she left me to myself.

I had pushed back my chair and was filling my pipe when the telephone
rang. It was Swain.

"Swain," I said, "this is Mr. Lester. I'm at a place up here in the
Bronx, and I want you to come up right away."

"Very good, sir," said Swain. "How do I get there?"

"Take the Third Avenue elevated to the end of the line, and then the
trolley which runs along Dryden Road. Get off at Prospect Street, walk
two blocks west and ask for the old Bennett place. I'll have an eye
out for you."

"All right, sir," said Swain, again. "Do you want me to bring some
papers, or anything?"

"No; just come as quickly as you can," I answered, and hung up.

I figured that, even at the best, it would take Swain an hour and a
half to make the journey, and I strolled out under the trees again.
Then the thought came to me that I might as well make a little
exploration of the neighbourhood, and I sauntered out to the road.
Along it for some distance ran the high wall which bounded Elmhurst,
and I saw that the wall had been further fortified by ugly pieces of
broken glass set in cement along its top.

I could see a break in the wall, about midway of its length, and,
walking past, discovered that this was where the gates were set--heavy
gates of wrought iron, very tall, and surmounted by sharp spikes. The
whole length of the wall was, I judged, considerably over a city
block, but there was no other opening in it.

At the farther end, it was bounded by a crossroad, and, turning along
this, I found that the wall extended nearly the same distance in this
direction. There was an opening about midway--a small opening, closed
by a heavy, iron-banded door--the servants' entrance, I told myself.
The grounds of a row of houses facing the road beyond ran up to the
wall at the back, and I could not follow it without attracting notice,
but I could see that there was no break in it. I was almost certain
that the wall which closed the estate on Godfrey's side was also
unbroken. There were, then, only the two entrances.

I walked back again to the front, and paused for a glance through the
gates. But there was nothing to be seen. The driveway parted and
curved away out of sight in either direction, and a dense mass of
shrubbery opposite the gate shut off any view of the grounds. Even of
the house, there was nothing to be seen except the chimneys and one
gable. Evidently, Mr. Vaughan was fond of privacy, and had spared no
pains to secure it.

Opposite the Vaughan place, a strip of woodland ran back from the
road. It was dense with undergrowth, and, I reflected, would form an
admirable hiding-place. The road itself seemed little travelled, and I
judged that the main artery of traffic was the road along which the
trolley ran, two blocks away.

I returned to my starting point, and assured myself that the wall on
that side was indeed without a break. Some vines had started up it
here and there, but, for the most part, it loomed grey and bleak,
crowned along its whole length by that threatening line of broken
glass. I judged it to be twelve feet high, so that, even without the
glass, it would be impossible for anyone to get over it without
assistance. As I stood there looking at it, resenting the threat of
that broken glass, and pondering the infirmity of character which such
a threat revealed, it suddenly struck me that the upper part of the
wall differed slightly from the lower part. It was a little lighter in
colour, a little newer in appearance; and, examining the wall more
closely, I discovered that originally it had been only eight or nine
feet high, and that the upper part had been added at a later date--and
last of all, of course, the broken glass!

As I turned back, at last, toward the house, I saw someone coming up
the drive. In a moment, I recognised Swain, and quickened my steps.

"You made good time," I said.

"Yes, sir; I was fortunate in catching an express and not having to
wait for the trolley."

"We'd better go into the house," I added. "I have a message for you--a
confidential message."

He glanced at me quickly, but followed silently, as I led the way into
Godfrey's study and carefully closed the door.

"Sit down," I said, and I sat down myself and looked at him.

I had always thought Swain a handsome, thoroughbred-looking fellow;
and I saw that, in the past few months, he had grown more
thoroughbred-looking than ever. His face was thinner than when he had
first gone to work for us, there was a new line between his eyebrows,
and the set of his lips told of battles fought and won. A year ago, it
had seemed natural to call him Freddie, but no one would think of
doing so now. His father's creditors had not attempted to take from
him his wardrobe--a costly and extensive one--so that he was dressed
as carefully, if not quite as fashionably, as ever, in a way that
suggested a young millionaire, rather than a fifteen-dollar-a-week
clerk. At this moment, his face was clouded, and he drummed the arm of
his chair with nervous fingers. Then he shifted uneasily under my
gaze, which was, perhaps, more earnest than I realised.

"You said you had a message for me, sir," he reminded me.

"Yes," I said. "Have you ever been out this way before?"

"Yes, I have been out this way a number of times."

"You know this place, then?"

"I have heard it mentioned, but I have never been here before."

"Do you know whose place that is next door to us?"

"Yes," and his voice sank to a lower key. "It belongs to Worthington
Vaughan."

"And you know him?"

"At one time, I knew him quite well, sir," and his voice was still
lower.

"No doubt," I went on, more and more interested, "you also knew his
very fascinating daughter."

A wave of colour crimsoned his face.

"Why are you asking me these questions, Mr. Lester?" he demanded.

"Because," I said, "the message I have is from that young lady, and
is for a man named Frederic Swain."

He was on his feet, staring at me, and all the blood was gone from his
cheeks.

"A message!" he cried. "From her! From Marjorie! What is it, Mr.
Lester? For God's sake...."

"Here it is," I said, and handed him the letter.

He seized it, took one look at the address, then turned away to the
window and ripped the envelope open. He unfolded the sheet of paper it
contained, and as his eyes ran along it, his face grew whiter still.
At last he raised his eyes and stared at me with the look of a man who
felt the world tottering about him.




CHAPTER V

A CALL FOR HELP


"For heaven's sake, Swain," I said, "sit down and pull yourself
together."

But he did not seem to hear me. Instead he read the letter through
again, then he turned toward me.

"How did you get this, Mr. Lester?" he asked.

"I found it lying under the trees. It had been thrown over the wall."

"But how did you know it was thrown over by Miss Vaughan?"

"That was an easy guess," I said, sparring feebly. "Who else would
attempt to conduct a surreptitious correspondence with a handsome
young man?"

But he did not smile; the look of intensity in his eyes deepened.

"Come, Mr. Lester," he protested, "don't play with me. I have a right
to know the truth."

"What right?" I queried.

He paused an instant, as though nerving himself to speak, as though
asking himself how much he should tell me. Then he came toward me
impulsively.

"Miss Vaughan and I are engaged to be married," he said. "Some persons
may tell you that the engagement has been broken off; more than once,
I have offered to release her, but she refuses to be released. We love
each other."

The word "love" is a difficult one for us Anglo-Saxons to pronounce;
the voice in which Swain uttered it brought me to my feet, with
outstretched hand.

"If there's anything I can do for you, my boy," I said, "tell me."

"Thank you, Mr. Lester," and he returned my clasp. "You have done a
great deal already in giving me this letter so promptly. The only
other thing you can do is to permit me to stay here until to-night."

"Until to-night?"

"Miss Vaughan asks me to meet her to-night."

"In her father's grounds?"

"Yes."

"Unknown to him?"

"Yes."

"He is not friendly to you?"

"No."

I had a little struggle with myself.

"See here, Swain," I said, "sit down and let us talk this thing over
calmly. Before I promise anything, I should like to know more of the
story. From the glimpse I caught of Miss Vaughan, I could see that she
is very beautiful, and she also seemed to me to be very young."

"She is nineteen," said Swain.

"Her father is wealthy, I suppose?"

"Very wealthy."

"And her mother is dead?"

"Yes."

"Well," I began, and hesitated, fearing to wound him.

"I know what you are thinking," Swain burst in, "and I do not blame
you. You are thinking that she is a young, beautiful and wealthy girl,
while I am a poverty-stricken nonentity, without any profession, and
able to earn just enough to live on--perhaps I couldn't do even that,
if I had to buy my clothes! You are thinking that her father is right
to separate us, and that she ought to be protected from me. Isn't that
it?"

"Yes," I admitted, "something like that."

"And I answer, Mr. Lester, by saying that all that is true, that I am
not worthy of her, and that nobody knows it better than I do. There
are thousands of men who could offer her far more than I can, and who
would be eager to offer it. But when I asked her to marry me, I
thought myself the son of a wealthy man. When I found myself a
pauper, I wrote at once to release her. She replied that when she
wished her release, she would ask for it; that it wasn't my money she
was in love with. Then I came out here and had a talk with her father.
He was kind enough, but pointed out that the affair could not go
further until I had established myself. I agreed, of course; I agreed,
too, when he suggested that it would only be fair to her to leave her
free--not to see her or write to her, or try to influence her in any
way. I wanted to be fair to her. Since then, I have not seen her, nor
heard from her. But her father's feelings have changed toward me."

"In what way?"

"I thought he might be interested to know what I was doing, and two or
three months ago, I called and asked to see him. Instead of seeing me,
he sent word by a black-faced fellow in a white robe that neither he
nor his daughter wished to see me again."

His face was red with the remembered humiliation.

"I wrote to Miss Vaughan once, after that," he added, "but my letter
was not answered."

"Evidently she didn't get your letter."

"Why do you think so?"

"If she had got it, she would have known that you were no longer at
1010 Fifth Avenue. Her father, no doubt, kept it from her."

He flushed still more deeply, and started to say something, but I held
him silent.

"He was justified in keeping it," I said. "You had promised not to
write to her. And I don't see that you have given me any reason why I
should assist you against him."

"I haven't," Swain admitted more calmly, "and under ordinary
circumstances, my self-respect would compel me to keep away. I am not
a fortune-hunter. But I can't keep away; I can't stand on my dignity.
When she calls for aid, I _must_ go to her, not for my own sake but
for hers, because she needs to be protected from her father far more
than from me."

"What do you mean by that?" I demanded.

"Mr. Lester," he said, leaning forward in his chair and speaking in a
lowered voice and with great earnestness, "her father is mad--I am
sure of it. No one but a madman would live and dress as he does; no
one but a madman would devote his whole time to the study of the
supernatural; no one but a madman would believe in the supernatural as
he does."

But I shook my head.

"I'm afraid that won't do, Swain. A good many fairly sane people
believe in the supernatural and devote themselves to its study--there
is William James, for instance."

"But William James doesn't dress in flowing robes, and worship the
sun, and live with a Hindu mystic."

"No," I smiled, "he doesn't do that," and I thought again of the
mysterious light and of the two white-clad figures. "Does he live with
a Hindu mystic?"

"Yes," said Swain, bitterly. "An adept, or whatever they call it. He's
the fellow who kicked me out."

"Does he speak English?"

"Better than I do. He seems a finely-educated man."

"Is he a lunatic, too?"

Swain hesitated.

"I don't know," he said, finally. "I only saw him once, and I was
certainly impressed--I wasn't one, two, three with him. I suppose
mysticism comes more or less natural to a Hindu; but I'm convinced
that Mr. Vaughan has softening of the brain."

"How old is he?"

"About sixty."

"Has he always been queer?"

"He has always been interested in telepathy and mental suggestion,
and all that sort of thing. But before his wife's death, he was fairly
normal. It was her death that started him on this supernatural
business. He hasn't thought of anything else since."

"Are there any relatives who could be asked to interfere?"

"None that I know of."

I thought over what he had told me.

"Well," I said at last, "I can see no harm in your meeting Miss
Vaughan and finding out what the condition of affairs really is. If
her father is really mad, he may be a good deal worse now than he was
when you saw him last. It would, of course, be possible to have his
sanity tested--but his daughter would scarcely wish to do that."

"No, of course not," Swain agreed.

"Her letter tells you nothing?"

"Nothing except that she is in great trouble, and wishes to see me at
once."

"You are to go to the house?"

"No; there is an arbour in one corner of the grounds. She says that
she will be there at eleven-thirty every night for three nights. After
that, she says it will be no use for me to come--that it will be too
late."

"What does she mean by 'too late'?"

"I have no idea," he answered, and turned to another anxious perusal
of the letter.

I turned the situation over in my mind. Evidently Miss Vaughan
believed that she had grave cause for alarm, and yet it was quite
possible she might be mistaken. She was being urged to consent to
something against her will, but perhaps it was for her own good. In
any event, I had seen no indication that her consent was being sought
by violence. There must be no interference on our part until we were
surer of our ground.

"Well, Swain," I said, at last, "I will help you on one condition."

"What is that?"

"You will meet Miss Vaughan to-night and hear her story, but you will
take no action until you and I have talked the matter over. She,
herself, says that she has three days," I went on, as he started to
protest, "so there is no necessity for leaping in the dark. And I
would point out to you that she is not yet of age, but is still under
her father's control."

"She is nineteen," he protested.

"In this state, the legal age for women, as for men, is twenty-one.
The law requires a very serious reason for interfering between a child
and its father. Moreover," I added, "she must not be compromised. If
you persuade her to accompany you to-night, where would you take her?
In no case, will I be a party to an elopement--I will do all I can to
prevent it."

He took a short turn up and down the room, his hands clenched behind
him.

"Mr. Lester," he said, at last, stopping before me, "I want you to
believe that I have not even thought of an elopement--that would be
too base, too unfair to her. But I see that you are right. She must
not be compromised."

"And you promise to ask my advice?"

"Suppose I make such a promise, what then?"

"If you make such a promise, and I agree with you as to the necessity
for Miss Vaughan to leave her father, I think I can arrange for her to
stay with Mr. and Mrs. Royce for a time. There she will be safe.
Should legal proceedings become necessary, our firm will help you. I
want to help you, Swain," I added, warmly, "but I must be convinced
that you deserve help. That's reasonable, isn't it?"

"Yes," he agreed, and held out his hand. "And I promise."

"Good. And now for the arrangements."

Two twelve-foot ladders were necessary, one for either side of the
wall; but, beyond a short step-ladder, the place possessed none except
the long one by which Godfrey and I had mounted into the tree. Swain
suggested that this might do for one, but I felt that it would better
stay where it was, and sent Hargis over to Yonkers to buy two new
ones, instructing him to bring them back with him.

Then Swain and I reconnoitred the wall, and chose for the crossing a
spot where the glass escarpment seemed a little less formidable than
elsewhere.

"You can step from one ladder to the other," I pointed out, "without
touching the top of the wall. A mere touch would be dangerous in the
dark."

He nodded his agreement, and finally we went back to the house.
Getting there, we found suddenly that we had nothing more to say.
Swain was soon deep in his own thoughts; and, I must confess, that,
after the first excitement, I began to find the affair a little
wearying. Another man's love-affair is usually wearying; and, besides
that, the glimpse which I had caught of Marjorie Vaughan made me think
that she was worthy of a bigger fish than Swain would ever be. He was
right in saying that there were thousands of men who had more to give
her, and who would be eager to give.

I examined Swain, as he sat there staring at nothing, with eyes not
wholly friendly. He was handsome enough, but in a stereotyped way. And
he was only an insignificant clerk, with small prospect of ever being
anything much better, for he had started the battle of life too late.
Honest, of course, honourable, clean-hearted, but commonplace, with a
depth of soul easily fathomed. I know now that I was unjust to Swain,
but, at the moment, my scrutiny of him left me strangely depressed.

A rattle of wheels on the drive brought us both out of our thoughts.
It was Hargis returning with the ladders. I had him hang them up
against the shed where he kept his gardening implements, for I did not
wish him to suspect the invasion we had planned; then, just to kill
time and get away from Swain, I spent an hour with Hargis in his
garden; and finally came the summons to dinner. An hour later, as we
sat on the front porch smoking, and still finding little or nothing to
say, Mrs. Hargis came out to bid us good-night.

"Mr. Swain can use the bedroom next to yours, Mr. Lester," she said.

"Perhaps he won't stay all night," I said. "If he does, I'll show him
the way to it. And thank you very much, Mrs. Hargis."

"Is there anything else I can do, sir?"

"No, thank you."

"Mr. Godfrey will be here a little before midnight--at least, that's
his usual time."

"We'll wait up for him," I said. "Good night, Mrs. Hargis."

"Good night, sir," and she went back into the house.

I have never passed through a longer or more trying hour than the next
one was, and I could tell by the way Swain twitched about in his chair
that he felt the tedium as much as I. Once or twice I tried to start a
conversation, but it soon trickled dry; and we ended by smoking away
moodily and staring out into the darkness.

At last Swain sprang to his feet.

"I can't stand this any longer," he said. "I'm going over the wall."

I struck a match and looked at my watch.

"It isn't eleven o'clock yet," I warned him.

"I don't care. Perhaps she'll be ahead of time. Anyway, I might as
well wait there as here."

"Come on, then," I agreed, for I felt myself that another such hour
would be unendurable.

Together we made our way back to the shed and took down the ladders. A
moment later, we were at the wall. Swain placed his ladder against it,
and mounted quickly to the top. As he paused there, I handed him up
the other one. He caught it from my hands, lifted it over the wall,
and lowered it carefully on the other side. As he did so, I heard him
give a muffled exclamation of mingled pain and annoyance, and knew
that he had cut himself.

"Not bad, is it?" I asked.

"No; only a scratch on the wrist," he answered shortly, and the next
instant he had swung himself over the wall and disappeared.




CHAPTER VI

THE SCREAM IN THE NIGHT


For some moments, I stood staring up into the darkness, half-expecting
that shadowy figure to reappear, descend the ladder, and rejoin me.
Then I shook myself together. The fact that our plot was really
moving, that Swain was in the enemy's country, so to speak, gave the
affair a finality which it had lacked before. It was too late now to
hesitate or turn back; we must press forward. I felt as though, after
a long period of uncertainty, war had been declared and the advance
definitely begun. So it was with a certain sense of relief that I
turned away, walked slowly back to the house, and sat down again upon
the porch to wait.

Now waiting is seldom a pleasant or an easy thing, and I found it that
night most unpleasant and uneasy. For, before long, doubts began to
crowd upon me--doubts of the wisdom of the course I had subscribed to.
It would have been wiser, I told myself, if it had been I, and not
Swain, who had gone to the rendezvous; wiser still, perhaps, to have
sought an interview openly, and to have made sure of the facts before
seeming to encourage what might easily prove to be a girl's more or
less romantic illusions. A midnight interview savoured too much of
melodrama to appeal to a middle-aged lawyer like myself, however great
its appeal might be to youthful lovers. At any rate, I would be
certain that the need was very great before I consented to meddle
further!

Somewhat comforted by this resolution and by the thought that no real
harm had as yet been done, I struck a match and looked at my watch. It
was half-past eleven. Well, whatever the story was, Swain was hearing
it now, and I should hear it before long. And then I caught the hum of
an approaching car, and was momentarily blinded by the glare of
acetylene lamps.

"Hello, Lester," called Godfrey's voice, "I'll be back in a minute,"
and he ran the car on toward the rear of the house.

I stood up with a gasp of thankfulness. Here was someone to confide in
and advise with. The stretch of lonely waiting was at an end; it had
been a trying evening!

I think the warmth of my greeting surprised Godfrey, for he looked at
me curiously.

"Sit down, Godfrey," I said. "I've got something to tell you."

"What, discoveries already?" he laughed, but he drew a chair close to
mine and sat down. "Well, what are they?"

I began at the beginning and related the day's adventures. He listened
without comment, but I could see how his interest grew.

"So young Swain is over in those grounds now," he said thoughtfully,
when I had finished.

"Yes; he's been there three-quarters of an hour."

"Why do you suppose Miss Vaughan named so late an hour?"

"I don't know. Perhaps because she was afraid of being discovered
earlier than that--or perhaps merely because she's just a romantic
girl."

Godfrey sat with his head bent in thought for a moment.

"I have it!" he said. "At eleven-thirty every night her father and the
adept go up to the roof, to remain there till midnight. That is the
one time of the whole day when she is absolutely sure to be alone.
Come along, Lester!"

He was on his feet now, and his voice was quivering with excitement.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Up the ladder. It's nearly twelve. If the star falls as usual, we'll
know that everything is all right. If it doesn't ..."

He did not finish, but hurried away among the trees. In a moment we
were at the ladder; in another moment we were high among the leaves,
straining our eyes through the darkness.

"I'm going to look at my watch," said Godfrey, in a low voice. "Lean
back and screen me."

I heard the flash of the match and saw a little glare of light against
the nearest leaves. Then Godfrey's voice spoke again.

"It's three minutes of twelve," he said.

There was a tension in his voice which sent a shiver through me,
though I understood but dimly what it was he feared. The stars were
shining brightly, and once I fancied that I saw the strange star
appear among them; but when I closed my eyes for an instant and looked
again, it was gone. Slow minute followed minute, and the hand with
which I clutched the ladder began to tremble. The sight of that
mysterious light had shaken me the night before, but not half so
deeply as its absence shook me now. At last the suspense grew
unendurable.

"It must be long past midnight," I whispered.

"It is," agreed Godfrey gravely; "we may as well go down."

He paused an instant longer to stare out into the darkness, then
descended quickly. I followed, and found him waiting, a dark shadow.
He put his hand on my arm, and stood a moment, as though in
indecision. For myself, I felt as though an intolerable burden had
been laid upon my shoulders.

"Well," I asked, at last, "what now?"

"We must see if Swain has returned," he answered. "If he has, all
right. If he hasn't, we'll have to go and look for him."

"What is it you fear, Godfrey?" I demanded. "Do you think Swain's in
danger?"

"I don't know what I fear; but there's something wrong over there.
This is the first night for a week that that light hasn't appeared."

"Still," I pointed out, "that may have nothing to do with Swain."

"No; but it's a coincidence that he should be in the grounds--and I'm
always afraid of coincidences. Let us see if he is back," and he
turned toward the house.

But I held his arm.

"If he's back," I said, "he'll have taken the ladders down from the
wall."

"That's true," and together we made our way forward among the trees.
Then we reached the wall, and there was the dim white line of the
ladder leaning against it. Without a word, Godfrey mounted it, stood
an instant at the top, and then came down again.

"The other ladder is still there," he said, and took off his cap and
rubbed his head perplexedly. I could not see his face, but I could
guess how tense it was. I had been with him in many trying situations,
but only once before had I seen him use that gesture!

"It won't do to alarm the house," he said, at last. "Do you know where
he was to meet Miss Vaughan?"

"At an arbour in one corner of the grounds," I answered.

"Then we'll start from there and take a quiet look for him. Wait here
for me a minute."

He melted into the darkness, and I stood holding on to the ladder as
though in danger of falling, and staring at the top of the wall, where
I had last seen Swain. An hour and a half had passed since then....

A touch on the arm brought me around with a start.

"Here, put this pistol in your pocket," said Godfrey's voice, and I
felt the weapon pressed into my hand. "And here's an electric torch.
Do you feel the button?"

"Yes," I said, and pressed it. A ray of light shot toward the wall,
but I released the button instantly.

"You'd better keep it in your hand," he added, "ready for action. No
telling what we'll run across. And now come ahead."

He put his foot on the ladder, but I stopped him.

"Look here, Godfrey," I said, "do you realise that what we're about to
do is pretty serious? Swain might have a legal excuse, since the
daughter of the house invited him to a meeting; but if we go over the
wall, we're trespassers pure and simple. Anybody who runs across us in
the darkness has the right to shoot us down without asking any
questions--and we'd have no legal right to shoot back!"

I could hear Godfrey chuckling, and I felt my cheeks redden.

"You remind me of Tartarin," he said; "the adventurer-Tartarin urging
you on, the lawyer-Tartarin holding you back. My advice is to shake
the lawyer, Lester. He's out of his element here to-night. But if he's
too strong for you, why, stay here," and he started up the ladder.

Burning with vexation, I started after him, but suddenly he stopped.

"Listen!" he whispered.

I heard something rattle against the other side of the wall; then a
dark figure appeared on the coping.

I felt Godfrey press me back, and descended cautiously. A moment
later, something slid down the wall, and I knew that the person at the
top had lifted the other ladder over. Then the figure descended, and
then a distorted face stared into the circle of Godfrey's torch.

For a breath, I did not recognise it; then I saw that it was Swain's.

I shall never forget the shock it gave me, with its starting eyes and
working mouth and smear of blood across the forehead. Godfrey, I knew,
was also startled, for the light flashed out for an instant, and then
flashed on again.

"What is it, Swain?" I cried, and seized him by the arm; but he shook
me off roughly.

"Stand back!" he cried, hoarsely. "Who is it? What do you want?"

"It's Lester," I said, and Godfrey flashed his torch into my face,
then back to Swain's.

"But you're not alone."

"No; this is Mr. Godfrey."

"Mr. Godfrey?"

"Whose house we're staying at," I explained.

"Ah!" said Swain, and put one hand to his head and leaned heavily
against the ladder.

"I think we'd better go to the house," Godfrey suggested, soothingly.
"We all need a bracer. Then we can talk. Don't you think so, Mr.
Swain?"

Swain nodded vacantly, but I could see that he had not understood.
His face was still working and he seemed to be in pain.

"I want to wash," he said, thickly. "I cut my wrist on that damned
glass, and I'm blood all over, and my head's wrong, somehow." His
voice trailed off into an unintelligible mumble, but he held one hand
up into the circle of light, and I saw that his cuff was soaked with
blood and his hand streaked with it.

"Come along, then," said Godfrey peremptorily. "You're right--that cut
must be attended to," and he started toward the house.

"Wait!" Swain called after him, with unexpected vigour. "We must take
down the ladders. We mustn't leave them here."

"Why not?"

"If they're found, they'll suspect--they'll know ..." He stopped,
stammering, and again his voice trailed away into a mumble, as though
beyond his control.

Godfrey looked at him for a moment, and I could guess at the surprise
and suspicion in his eyes. I myself was ill at ease, for there was
something in Swain's face--a sort of vacant horror and dumb
shrinking--that filled me with a vague repulsion. And then to see his
jaw working, as he tried to form articulate words and could not, sent
a shiver over my scalp.

"Very well," Godfrey agreed, at last. "We'll take the ladders, since
you think it so important. You take that one, Lester, and I'll take
this."

I stooped to raise the ladder to my shoulder, when suddenly, cutting
the darkness like a knife, came a scream so piercing, so vibrant with
fear, that I stood there crouching, every muscle rigid. Again the
scream came, more poignant, more terrible, wrung from a woman's throat
by the last extremity of horror; and then a silence sickening and
awful. What was happening in that silence?

I stood erect, gaping, suffocated, rising as from a long submersion.
Godfrey's finger had slipped from the button of his torch, and we were
in darkness; but suddenly a dim figure hurled itself past us, up the
ladder.

With a low cry, Godfrey snatched at it, but his hand clutched only the
empty air. The next instant, the figure poised itself on the coping of
the wall and then plunged forward out of sight. I heard the crash of
breaking branches, a scramble, a patter of feet, and all was still.

"It's Swain!" said Godfrey, hoarsely; "and that's a twelve-foot drop!
Why, the man's mad! Hand me that ladder, Lester!" he added, for he
was already at the top of the wall.

I lifted it, as I had done once before that night, and saw Godfrey
slide it over the wall.

"Come on!" he said. "We must save him if we can!" and he, too,
disappeared.

The next instant, I was scrambling desperately after him. The
lawyer-Tartarin had vanished!




CHAPTER VII

THE TRAGEDY


The wall was masked on the other side by a dense growth of shrubbery,
and struggling through this, I found myself on the gravelled path
where I had seen Marjorie Vaughan. Before me, along this path, sped a
shadow which I knew to be Godfrey, and I followed at top speed. At the
end of a moment, I caught a flash of light among the trees, and knew
that we were nearing the house; but I saw no sign of Swain.

We came to the stretch of open lawn, crossed it, and, guided by the
light, found ourselves at the end of a short avenue of trees. At the
other end, a stream of light poured from an open door, and against
that light a running figure was silhouetted. Even as I saw it, it
bounded through the open door and vanished.

"It's Swain!" gasped Godfrey; and then we, too, were at that open
door.

For an instant, I thought the room was empty. Then, from behind the
table in the centre, a demoniac, blood-stained figure rose into view,
holding in its arms a white-robed woman. With a sort of nervous shock,
I saw that the man was Swain, and the woman Marjorie Vaughan. A
thrill of fear ran through me as I saw how her head fell backwards
against his shoulder, how her arms hung limp....

Without so much as a glance in our direction, he laid her gently on a
couch, fell to his knees beside it, and began to chafe her wrists.

It was Godfrey who mastered himself first, and who stepped forward to
Swain's side.

"Is she dead?" he asked.

Swain shook his head impatiently, without looking up.

"How is she hurt?" Godfrey persisted, bending closer above the
unconscious girl.

Swain shot him one red glance.

"She's not hurt!" he said, hoarsely. "She has fainted--that's all. Go
away."

But Godfrey did not go away. After one burning look at Swain's
lowering face, he bent again above the still figure on the couch, and
touched his fingers to the temples. What he saw or felt seemed to
reassure him, for his voice was more composed when he spoke again.

"I think you're right, Swain," he said. "But we'd better call
someone."

"Call away!" snarled Swain.

"You mean there's no one here? Surely, her father ..."

He stopped, for at the words Swain had burst into a hoarse laugh.

"Her father!" he cried. "Oh, yes; he's here! Call him! He's over
there!"

He made a wild gesture toward a high-backed easy-chair beside the
table, his eyes gleaming with an almost fiendish excitement; then the
gleam faded, and he turned back to the girl.

Godfrey cast one astonished glance at him and strode to the chair. I
saw his face quiver with sudden horror, I saw him catch at the table
for support, and for an instant he stood staring down. Then he turned
stiffly toward me and motioned me to approach.

In the chair a man sat huddled forward--a grey-haired man, clad in a
white robe. His hands were gripping the chair-arms as though in agony.
His head hung down almost upon his knees.

Silently Godfrey reached down and raised the head. And a cry of horror
burst from both of us.

The face was purple with congested blood, the tongue swollen and
horribly protruding, the eyes suffused and starting from their
sockets. And then, at a motion from Godfrey's finger, I saw that about
the neck a cord was tightly knotted. The man had been strangled.

Godfrey, after a breathless moment in which he made sure that the man
was quite dead, let the head fall forward again. It turned me sick to
see how low it sagged, how limp it hung. And I saw that the collar of
the white robe was spotted with blood.

I do not know what was in Godfrey's mind, but, by a common impulse, we
turned and looked at Swain. He was still on his knees beside the
couch. Apparently he had forgotten our presence.

"It's plain enough," said Godfrey, his voice thick with emotion. "She
came in and found the body. No wonder she screamed like that! But
where are the servants? Where is everybody?"

The same thought was in my own mind. The utter silence of the house,
the fact that no one came, added, somehow, to the horror of the
moment. Those wild screams must have echoed from cellar to garret--and
yet no one came!

Godfrey made a rapid scrutiny of the room, which was evidently the
library, with a double door opening upon the grounds and another
opposite opening into the hall. On the wall beside the inner door, he
found an electric button, and he pushed it for some moments, but there
was no response. If it rang a bell, the bell was so far away that we
could not hear it.

A heavy curtain hung across the doorway. Godfrey pulled it aside and
peered into the hall beyond. The hall was dark and silent. With face
decidedly grim, he took his torch from one pocket and his pistol from
another.

"Come along, Lester," he said. "We've got to look into this. Have your
torch ready--and your pistol. God knows what further horrors this
house contains!"

He pulled back the curtain, so that the hall was lighted to some
extent from the open doorway, and then passed through, I after him.
The hall was a broad one, running right through the centre of the
house from front to rear. Godfrey proceeded cautiously and yet rapidly
the whole length of it, flashing his torch into every room. They were
all luxuriously furnished, but were empty of human occupants. From the
kitchen, which closed the hall at the rear, a flight of stone steps
led down into the basement, and Godfrey descended these with a
steadiness I could not but admire. We found ourselves in a square,
stone-flagged room, evidently used as a laundry. Two doors opened out
of it, but both were secured with heavy padlocks.

"Store-rooms or wine-cellars, perhaps," Godfrey ventured, mounted the
stairs again to the kitchen, and returned to the room whence we had
started.

Everything there was as we had left it. The dead man sat huddled
forward in his chair; Swain was still on his knees beside the couch;
the girl had not stirred. Godfrey went to the side of the couch, and,
disregarding Swain's fierce glance, again placed his fingers lightly
on the girl's left temple. Then he came back to me.

"If she doesn't revive pretty soon," he said, "we'll have to try
heroic measures. But there must be somebody in the house. Let's look
upstairs."

He led the way up the broad stairs, which rose midway of the hall,
sending a long ray of light ahead of him. I followed in no very happy
frame of mind, for I confess that this midnight exploration of an
unknown house, with a murdered man for its only occupant, was getting
on my nerves. But Godfrey proceeded calmly and systematically.

The hall above corresponded to that below, with two doors on each
side, opening into bedroom suites. The first was probably that of the
master of the house. It consisted of bedroom, bath and dressing-room,
but there was no one there. The next was evidently Miss Vaughan's. It
also had a bath and a daintily-furnished boudoir; but these, too, were
empty.

Then, as we opened the door across the hall, a strange odour saluted
us--an odour suggestive somehow of the East--which, in the first
moment, caught the breath from the throat, and in the second seemed to
muffle and retard the beating of the heart.

A flash of Godfrey's torch showed that we were in a little entry,
closed at the farther end by a heavy drapery. Godfrey strode forward
and swept the drapery aside. The rush of perfume was over-powering,
and through the opening came a soft glow of light.

It was a moment before I got my breath; then a mist seemed to fall
from before my eyes and a strange sense of exaltation and well-being
stole through me. I saw Godfrey standing motionless, transfixed, with
one hand holding back the drapery, and his torch hanging unused in the
other, and I crept forward and peered over his shoulder at the
strangest scene I have ever gazed upon.

Just in front of us, poised in the air some three feet from the floor,
hung a sphere of crystal, glowing with a soft radiance which seemed to
wax and wane, to quiver almost to darkness and then to burn more
clearly. It was like a dreamer's pulse, fluttering, pausing, leaping,
in accord with his vision. And as I gazed at the sphere, I fancied I
could see within it strange, elusive shapes, which changed and merged
and faded from moment to moment, and yet grew always clearer and more
suggestive. I bent forward, straining my eyes to see them better, to
fathom their meaning ...

Godfrey, turning to speak to me, saw my attitude and shook me roughly
by the arm.

"Don't do that, Lester!" he growled in my ear. "Take your eyes off
that crystal!"

I tried to move my eyes, but could not, until Godfrey pulled me around
to face him. I stood blinking at him stupidly.

"I was nearly gone, myself, before I realised the danger," he said. "A
sphere like that can hypnotise a man more quickly than anything else
on earth, especially when his resistance is lessened, as it is by this
heavy perfume."

"It was rather pleasant," I said. "I should like to try it some time."

"Well, you can't try it now. You've got something else to do. Besides,
it has two victims already."

"Two victims?"

"Look carefully, but keep your eyes off the sphere," he said, and
swung me around toward the room again.

The room was shrouded in impenetrable darkness, except for the faint
and quivering radiance which the sphere emitted, and as I plunged my
eyes into its depths in an effort to see what lay there, it seemed to
me that I had never seen blackness so black. As I stared into it,
with straining eyes, a vague form grew dimly visible beside the
glowing sphere; and then I recoiled a little, for suddenly it took
shape and I saw it was a man.

I had a queer fancy, as I stood there, that it was really a picture
into which I was gazing--one of Rembrandt's--for, gradually, one
detail after another emerged from the darkness, vague shadows took on
shape and meaning, but farther back there was always more shadow, and
farther back still more ...

The man was sitting cross-legged on a low divan, his hands crossed in
front of him and hanging limply between his knees. His clothing I
could see but vaguely, for it was merged into the darkness about him,
but his hands stood out white against it. He was staring straight at
the crystal, with unwavering and unwinking gaze, and sat as motionless
as though carved in stone. The glow from the sphere picked out his
profile with a line of light--I could see the high forehead, the
strong, curved nose, the full lips shaded by a faint moustache, and
the long chin, only partially concealed by a close-clipped beard. It
was a wonderful and compelling face, especially as I then saw it, and
I gazed at it for a long moment.

"It's the adept, I suppose," said Godfrey, no longer taking care to
lower his voice.

It sounded unnaturally loud in the absolute stillness of the room,
and I looked at the adept quickly, but he had not moved.

"Can't he hear you?" I asked.

"No--he couldn't hear a clap of thunder. That is, unless he's faking."

I looked again at the impassive figure.

"He's not faking," I said.

"I don't know," and Godfrey shook his head sceptically. "It looks like
the real thing--but these fellows are mighty clever. Do you see the
other victim? There's no fake about it!"

"I see no one else," I said, after a vain scrutiny.

"Look carefully on the other side of the sphere. Don't you see
something there?"

My eyes were smarting under the strain, and for a moment longer I saw
nothing; then a strange, grey shape detached itself from the
blackness. It was an ugly and repulsive shape, slender below, but
swelling hideously at the top, and as I stared at it, it seemed to me
that it returned my stare with malignant eyes screened by a pair of
white-rimmed glasses. Then, with a sensation of dizziness, I saw that
the shape was swaying gently back and forth, in a sort of rhythm. And
then, quite suddenly, I saw what it was, and a chill of horror
quivered up my back.

It was a cobra.

To and fro it swung, to and fro, its staring eyes fixed upon the
sphere, its spectacled hood hideously distended.

The very soul within me trembled as I gazed at those unwinking eyes.
What did they see in the sphere? What was passing in that inscrutable
brain? Could it, too, reconstruct the past, read the mysteries of the
future ...

Some awful power, greater than my will, seemed stretching its
tentacles from the darkness: I felt them dragging at me, certain,
remorseless, growing stronger and stronger ...

With something very like a shriek of terror, I tore myself away, out
of the entry, into the hall, to the stairs, and down them into the
lighted room below.

And as I stood there, gasping for breath, Godfrey followed me, and I
saw that his face, too, was livid.




CHAPTER VIII

A FRESH ENIGMA


Godfrey met my eyes with a little deprecating smile, put his torch in
one pocket, took a handkerchief from another, and mopped his forehead.

"Rather nerve-racking, wasn't it, Lester?" he remarked, and then his
gaze wandered to the couch, and he stepped toward it quickly.

I saw that a change had come in Miss Vaughan's condition. Her eyes
were still closed, but her body no longer lay inert and lifeless, for
from moment to moment it was shaken by a severe nervous tremor.
Godfrey's face was very grave as he looked at her.

"Stop stroking her wrists, Swain," he said; "that does no good," and
when Swain, without answering or seeming to hear, kept on stroking
them, Godfrey drew the hands away, took Swain by the arm, and
half-lifted him to his feet. "Listen to me," he said, more sternly,
and shook him a little, for Swain's eyes were dull and vacant. "I want
you to sit quietly in a chair for a while, till you get your senses
back. Miss Vaughan is seriously ill and must not be disturbed in any
way. I'm going to get a doctor and a nurse at once; they'll do what
needs to be done. Until then, she must be left alone. Understand?"

Swain nodded vaguely, and permitted Godfrey to lead him to a chair
near the outer door, where he sat down. As his hand fell across the
arm of the chair, I could see that a little blood was still oozing
from the wound on the wrist. Godfrey saw it, too, and picked up the
hand and looked at it. Then he laid it gently down again and glanced
at his watch. I followed his example, and saw that it was half-past
one.

"Have you nerve enough to stay here half an hour by yourself, Lester?"
he asked.

"By myself?" I echoed, and glanced at the dead man and at the
quivering girl.

"I've got to run over to my place to get a few things and do some
telephoning," he explained. "We must get a doctor up here at once; and
then there's the police--I'll try to get Simmonds. Will you stay?"

"Yes," I said, "of course. But please get back as soon as you can."

"I will," he promised, and, after a last look around the room, stepped
out upon the walk.

I went to the door and looked after him until the sound of his
footsteps died away. Then, feeling very lonely, I turned back into the
room. Those regular tremors were still shaking the girl's body in a
way that seemed to me most alarming, but there was nothing I could do
for her, and I finally pulled a chair to Swain's side. He, at least,
offered a sort of companionship. He was sitting with his head hanging
forward in a way that reminded me most unpleasantly of the huddled
figure by the table, and did not seem to be aware of my presence. I
tried to draw him into talk, but a slight nod from time to time was
all I could get from him, and I finally gave it up. Mechanically, my
hand sought my coat pocket and got out my pipe--yes, that was what I
needed; and, sitting down in the open doorway, I filled it and lighted up.

My nerves grew calmer, presently, and I was able to think connectedly
of the events of the night, but there were two things which, looked at
from any angle, I could not understand. One was Swain's dazed and
incoherent manner; the other was the absence of servants.

As to Swain, I believed him to be a well-poised fellow, not easily
upset, and certainly not subject to attacks of nerves. What had
happened to him, then, to reduce him to the pitiable condition in
which he had come back to us over the wall, and in which he was still
plunged? The discovery of the murder and of Miss Vaughan's senseless
body might have accounted for it, but his incoherence had antedated
that--unless, indeed, he knew of the murder before he left the
grounds. That thought gave me a sudden shock, and I put it away from
me, not daring to pursue it farther.

As to the house, its deserted condition seemed sinister and
threatening. It was absurd to suppose that an establishment such as
this could be carried on without servants, or with less than three or
four. But where were they? And then I remembered that Godfrey and I
had not completed our exploration of the house. We had stopped at the
gruesome room where the adept and his serpent gazed unwinking into the
crystal sphere. There was at least one suite on the same floor we had
not looked into, and no doubt there were other rooms on the attic
floor above. But that any one could have slept on undisturbed by those
piercing screams and by our own comings and goings seemed
unbelievable. Perhaps there were separate quarters in the grounds
somewhere--

And then, without conscious will of my own, I felt my body stiffen and
my fingers grip my pipe convulsively. A slow tremor seemed to start
from the end of my spine, travel up it, and pass off across my scalp.
There was someone in the room behind me; someone with gleaming eyes
fixed upon me; and I sat there rigidly, straining my ears, expecting
I knew not what--a blow upon the head, a cord about the neck.

A rapid step came up the walk and Godfrey appeared suddenly out of the
darkness.

"Well, Lester," he began; but I sprang to my feet and faced the room,
for I could have sworn that I had heard behind me the rustle of a
silken dress. But there was no one there except Swain and Miss Vaughan
and the dead man--and none of them had moved.

"What is it?" Godfrey asked, stepping past me into the room.

"There was someone there, Godfrey," I said. "I'm sure of it--I felt
someone--I felt his eyes on me--and then, as you spoke, I heard the
rustle of a dress."

"Of a dress?"

"Or of a robe," and my thoughts were on the bearded man upstairs.

Godfrey glanced at me, crossed the room, and looked out into the hall.
Then he turned back to me.

"Well, whoever it was," he said, and I could see that he thought my
ears had deceived me, "he has made good his escape. There'll be a
doctor and a nurse here in a few minutes, and I got Simmonds and told
him to bring Goldberger along. He can't get here for an hour anyway.
And I've got a change here for Swain," he added, with a gesture
toward some garments he carried over one arm; "also a bracer to be
administered to him," and he drew a flask from his pocket and handed
it to me. "Maybe you need one, yourself," he added, smiling drily,
"since you've taken to hearing rustling robes."

"I do," I said, "though not on that account," and I raised the flask
to my lips and took a long swallow.

"Suppose you take Swain up to the bath-room," Godfrey suggested, "and
help him to get cleaned up. I'll go down to the gate and wait for the
doctor."

"The gate's probably locked."

"I thought of that," and he drew a small but heavy hammer from his
pocket. "I'll smash the lock, if there's no other way. I'd like you to
get Swain into shape before anyone arrives," he added. "He's not a
prepossessing object as he is."

"No, he isn't," I agreed, looking at him, and I took the garments
which Godfrey held out to me. Then I went over to Swain and put the
flask into his uninjured hand. "Take a drink of that," I said.

He did not understand at first; then he put the flask to his lips and
drank eagerly--so eagerly that I had to draw it away. He watched me
longingly as I screwed on the cap and slipped it into my pocket; and
there was more colour in his face and a brighter light in his eyes.

"Now, come along," I said, "and get that cut fixed up."

He rose obediently and followed me out into the hall. Godfrey had
preceded us, found the light-switch after a brief search, and turned
it on.

"There's a switch in the bath-room, too, no doubt," he said. "Bring
him down again, as soon as you get him fixed up. You'll find some
cotton and gauze in one of the pockets of the coat."

Swain followed me up the stair and into the bath-room. He seemed to
understand what I intended doing, for he divested himself of coat and
shirt and was soon washing arms and face vigorously. Then he dried
himself, and stood patiently while I washed and bandaged the cut on
the wrist. It was not a deep one, and had about stopped bleeding.

"Feel better?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, and without waiting for me to tell him, slipped into
the clean shirt which Godfrey had brought, attached the collar and
tied the tie, all this quite composedly and without hesitation or
clumsiness. Yet I felt, in some indefinable way, that something was
seriously wrong with him. His eyes were vacant and his face flabby, as
though the muscles were relaxed. It gave me the feeling that his
intelligence was relaxed, too!

He picked up his own coat, but I stopped him.

"Don't put that on," I said, speaking to him as I would have spoken to
a child. "The sleeve is blood-stained and there's a long tear down the
side. Take this one," and I held out the light lounging-coat Godfrey
had brought with him.

Swain laid down his own garment without a word and put on the other
one. I rolled the soiled garments into a bundle, took them under my
arm, turned out the lights, and led the way downstairs.

A murmur of voices from the library told me that someone had arrived,
and when I reached the door, I saw that it was the doctor and the
nurse. The former was just rising from a rapid examination of the
quivering figure on the couch.

"We must get her to bed at once," he said, turning to Godfrey. "Her
bedroom's upstairs, I suppose?"

"Yes," said Godfrey; "shall I show you the way?"

The doctor nodded and, lifting the girl carefully in his arms,
followed Godfrey out into the hall. The nurse picked up a
medicine-case from the floor and followed after.

I had expected Swain to rush forward to the couch, to make a scene,
perhaps, and had kept my hand upon his arm; but to my astonishment he
did not so much as glance in that direction. He stood patiently beside
me, with his eyes on the floor, and when my restraining hand fell
away, he walked slowly to the chair in which he had been sitting, and
dropped into it, relaxing limply as with fatigue.

Godfrey was back in a moment.

"That doctor was the nearest one I could find," he said. "He seems to
be all right. But if Miss Vaughan isn't better in the morning, I'll
get a specialist out."

"Godfrey," I said, in a low tone, "there's something the matter with
Swain," and I motioned to where he sat, flaccid and limp, apparently
half-asleep. "He is suffering from shock, or something of that sort.
It's something more, anyway, than over-wrought nerves. He seems to be
only half-conscious."

"I noticed it," said Godfrey, with a little nod. "We'll have the
doctor look at him when he comes down," and he sank wearily into a
chair. "This has been a pretty strenuous night, Lester."

"Yes; and it isn't over yet. I wonder what the man with the snake is
doing?"

"Still staring into the crystal, no doubt. Do you want to go and see?"

"No," I said decidedly, "I don't. Godfrey," I added, "doesn't the
absence of servants seem strange to you?"

"Very strange. But, I dare say, we'll find them around
somewhere--though they seem to be sound sleepers! We didn't look
through the whole house, you know. I'm not going to, either; I'm going
to let the police do that. They ought to be here pretty soon. I told
Simmonds to bring two or three men with him."

I glanced at the huddled body of the murdered man. With all the
night's excitements and surprises, we had not even touched upon that
mystery. Not a single gleam of light had been shed upon it, and yet it
was the centre about which all these other strange occurrences
revolved. Whose hand was it had thrown that cord about the throat and
drawn it tight? What motive lay behind? Fearsome and compelling must
the motive be to drive a man to such a crime! Would Simmonds be able
to divine that motive, to build the case up bit by bit until the
murderer was found? Would Godfrey?

I turned my head to look at him. He was lying back in his chair, his
eyes closed, apparently lost in thought, and for long minutes there
was no movement in the room.

At last the doctor returned, looking more cheerful than when he had
left the room. He had given Miss Vaughan an opiate and she was
sleeping calmly; the nervous trembling had subsided and he hoped that
when she waked she would be much better. The danger was that brain
fever might develop; she had evidently suffered a very severe shock.

"Yes," said Godfrey, "she discovered her father strangled in the chair
yonder."

"I saw the body when I came in," the doctor remarked, imperturbably.
"So it's her father, is it?"

"Yes."

"And strangled, you say?"

Godfrey answered with a gesture, and the doctor walked over to the
body, glanced at the neck, then disengaged one of the tightly clenched
hands from the chair-arm, raised it and let it fall. I could not but
envy his admirable self-control.

"How long has he been dead?" Godfrey asked.

"Not more than two or three hours," the doctor answered. "The muscles
are just beginning to stiffen. It looks like murder," he added, and
touched the cord about the neck.

"It _is_ murder."

"You've notified the police?"

"They will be here soon."

I saw the doctor glance at Godfrey and then at me, plainly puzzled as
to our footing in the house; but if there was a question in his mind,
he kept it from his lips and turned back again to the huddled body.

"Any clue to the murderer?" he asked, at last.

"We have found none."

And then the doctor stooped suddenly and picked up something from the
floor beside the chair.

"Perhaps this is a clue," he said, quietly, and held to the light an
object which, as I sprang to my feet, I saw to be a blood-stained
handkerchief.

He spread it out under our eyes, handling it gingerly, for it was
still damp, and we saw it was a small handkerchief--a woman's
handkerchief--of delicate texture. It was fairly soaked with blood,
and yet in a peculiar manner, for two of the corners were much
crumpled but quite unstained.

The doctor raised his eyes to Godfrey's.

"What do you make of it?" he asked.

"A clue, certainly," said Godfrey; "but scarcely to the murderer."

The doctor looked at it again for a moment, and then nodded. "I'd
better put it back where I found it, I guess," he said, and dropped it
beside the chair.

And then, suddenly, I remembered Swain. I turned to find him still
drooping forward in his chair, apparently half-asleep.

"Doctor," I said, "there is someone else here who is suffering from
shock," and I motioned toward the limp figure. "Or perhaps it's
something worse than that."

The doctor stepped quickly to the chair and looked down at its
occupant. Then he put his hand under Swain's chin, raised his head and
gazed intently into his eyes. Swain returned the gaze, but plainly in
only a half-conscious way.

"It looks like a case of concussion," said the doctor, after a moment.
"The left pupil is enlarged," and he ran his hand rapidly over the
right side of Swain's head. "I thought so," he added. "There's a
considerable swelling. We must get him to bed." Then he noticed the
bandaged wrist. "What's the matter here?" he asked, touching it with
his finger.

"He cut himself on a piece of glass," Godfrey explained. "You'd better
take him over to my place, where he can be quiet."

"I've got my car outside," said the doctor, and together he and I
raised Swain from the chair and led him to it.

He went docilely and without objection, and ten minutes later, was
safely in bed, already dozing off under the influence of the opiate
the doctor had given him. "He'll be all right in the morning," the
latter assured me. "But he must have got quite a blow over the head."

"I don't know what happened to him," I answered. "You'll come back
with me, won't you?"

"Yes; I may be useful," and he turned the car back the way we had
come. "Besides," he added, frankly, "I'm curious to learn what
happened in that house to-night."

He had certainly shown himself equal to emergencies, I reflected; and
I liked his voice and his manner, which was cool and capable.

"My name is Lester," I said. "I'm a lawyer staying with Mr. Godfrey.
We heard Miss Vaughan scream and ran over to the house, but we don't
know any more than you do."

"My name is Hinman, and I'm just a country doctor," said my companion;
"but if I can be of any help, I hope you'll call upon me. Hello!" he
added, as we turned through the gate into the grounds of Elmhurst, and
he threw on the brake sharply, for a uniformed figure had stepped out
into the glare of our lamps and held up his hand.

The police had arrived.




CHAPTER IX

FIRST STEPS


We found a little group of men gathered about the chair in which sat
the huddled body. Two of them I already knew. One was Detective-sergeant
Simmonds, and the other Coroner Goldberger, both of whom I had met
in previous cases. Simmonds was a stolid, unimaginative, but
industrious and efficient officer, with whom Godfrey had long
ago concluded an alliance offensive and defensive. In other words,
Godfrey threw what glory he could to Simmonds, and Simmonds such
stories as he could to Godfrey, and so the arrangement was to their
mutual advantage.

Goldberger was a more astute man than the detective, in that he
possessed a strain of Semitic imagination, a quick wit, and a fair
degree of insight. He was in his glory in a case like this. This was
shown now by his gleaming eyes and the trembling hand which pulled
nervously at his short, black moustache. Goldberger's moustache was a
good index to his mental state--the more ragged it grew, the more
baffling he found the case in hand!

Both he and Simmonds glanced up at our entrance and nodded briefly.
Then their eyes went back to that huddled figure.

There were three other men present whom I did not know, but I judged
them to be the plain-clothes-men whom Simmonds had brought along at
Godfrey's suggestion. They stood a little to one side until their
superiors had completed the examination.

"I didn't stop to pick up my physician," Goldberger was saying. "But
the cause of death is plain enough."

"Doctor Hinman here is a physician," I said, bringing him forward. "If
he can be of any service...."

Goldberger glanced at him, and was plainly favorably impressed by
Hinman's dark, eager face, and air of intelligence and self-control.

"I shall be very glad of Dr. Hinman's help," said Goldberger, shaking
hands with him. "Have you examined the body, sir?"

"Only very casually," answered Hinman. "But it is evident that the
cause of death was strangulation."

"How long has he been dead?"

Hinman lifted the stiff hand again and ran his fingers along the
muscles of the arm.

"About four hours, I should say."

Goldberger glanced at his watch.

"That would put his death at a little before midnight. The murderer
must have come in from the grounds, crept up behind his victim, thrown
the cord about his neck and drawn it tight before his presence was
suspected. The victim would hardly have remained seated in the chair
if he had known his danger. After the cord was round his throat, he
had no chance--he could not even cry out. There's one thing I don't
understand, though," he added, after a moment. "Where did that blood
come from?" and he pointed to the dark spots on the collar of the
white robe.

Hinman looked up with a little exclamation.

"I forgot," he said. "Did you find the handkerchief? No, I see you
didn't," and he pointed to where it lay on the floor. "I noticed it
when I first looked at the body."

Without a word, Goldberger bent and picked up the blood-stained
handkerchief. Then he and Simmonds examined it minutely. Finally the
coroner looked at Godfrey, and his eyes were very bright.

"There can be only one inference," he said. "The dead man is not
bleeding--the cord did not cut the flesh. The blood, then, must have
come from the murderer. He must have been injured in some
way--bleeding profusely. Look at this handkerchief--it is fairly
soaked."

I am sure that, at that instant, the same thought was in Godfrey's
mind which flashed through mine, for our eyes met, and there was a
shadow in his which I knew my own reflected. Then I glanced at Hinman.
He was looking at the handkerchief thoughtfully, his lips tightly
closed. I could guess what he was thinking, but he said nothing.

Goldberger laid the handkerchief on the table, at last, and turned
back to the body. He bent close above it, examining the blood spots,
and when he stood erect again there was in his face a strange
excitement.

"Lend me your glass, Simmonds," he said, and when Simmonds handed him
a small pocket magnifying-glass, he unfolded it and bent above the
stains again, scrutinising each in turn. At last he closed the glass
with an emphatic little snap. "This case isn't going to be so
difficult, after all," he said. "Those spots are finger-prints."

With an exclamation of astonishment, Simmonds took the glass and
examined the stains; then he handed it to Godfrey, who finally passed
it on to me. Looking through it, I saw that Goldberger was right. The
stains had been made by human fingers. Most of them were mere
smudges, but here and there was one on which faint lines could be
dimly traced.

"They seem to be pretty vague," I remarked, passing the glass on to
Hinman.

"They're plenty clear enough for our purpose," said Goldberger;
"besides they will come out much clearer in photographs. It's lucky
this stuff is so smooth and closely-woven," he added, fingering a
corner of the robe, "or we wouldn't have got even those. It's as hard
and fine as silk."

"How do you suppose those marks came there, Mr. Goldberger?" Godfrey
asked, and there was in his tone a polite scepticism which evidently
annoyed the coroner.

"Why, there's only one way they could come there," Goldberger answered
impatiently. "They were put there by the murderer's fingers as he drew
the cord tight. Do you see anything improbable in that?"

"Only that it seems too good to be true," Godfrey answered, quietly,
and Goldberger, after looking at him a moment, turned away with a
shrug of the shoulders.

"See if you can get the cord loose, Simmonds," he said.

The cord was in the form of a running noose, which had been knotted
to hold it in place after being drawn tight. Although it had not cut
the flesh of the neck, it had sunk deeply into it, and Simmonds worked
at the knot for some moments without result. I suspect his fingers
were not quite as steady as they might have been; but it was evidently
an intricate knot.

"That's a new one on me," he said, at last. "I can't get it loose."

Godfrey bent close above it and looked at it.

"It _is_ a peculiar knot," he agreed. "If you'll permit a suggestion,
Mr. Goldberger, you'll cut the cord and leave the knot as it is. It
may help us to find the man who made it."

"You're right," agreed Goldberger, promptly. "Cut the cord, Simmonds."

Simmonds got out his pocket-knife, opened it and slipped the blade
under the cord, cut it, and pulled it out of the ridge of flesh. He
looked at it a moment, and then handed it to Goldberger. The latter
examined it carefully.

"It's stained with blood, too," he remarked, and passed it on to
Godfrey.

"It looks like curtain-cord," Godfrey said, and made a little tour of
the room. "Ah!" he added, after a moment, from the door opening into
the grounds. "See here!"

He was holding up the end of the cord by which the curtains covering
the upper part of the double doors were controlled.

"You were right, Mr. Coroner," he said, "in thinking that the murderer
entered by this door, for he stopped here and cut off a piece of this
cord before going on into the room."

"Then he must also have stopped to make it into a noose," remarked
Goldberger. "If he did that, he was certainly a cool customer. It's a
wonder his victim didn't hear the noise he made."

"Making a knot isn't a noisy operation," Godfrey pointed out;
"besides, the back of the chair was toward the door. And then, of
course, it's possible his victim _did_ hear him."

"But then he would have jumped from the chair," objected Simmonds.

"Not necessarily. Suppose you were sitting there, and heard a noise,
and looked around and saw me standing here, you wouldn't jump from the
chair, would you?"

"No; I'd have no reason to jump from you."

"Perhaps Vaughan thought he had no reason to jump from the man _he_
saw--if he saw anyone. I'm inclined to think, however, that he didn't
suspect anyone else was in the room until he felt the cord about his
throat."

"And, of course," said Goldberger, taking the cord again and looking
at it, "it was while the murderer was making it into a noose with his
blood-stained fingers that he stained it in that way. Don't you agree,
Mr. Godfrey?"

"That is a possible explanation," Godfrey conceded.

"But why did he make this second knot?" inquired the coroner; "the
knot which holds the noose tight and prevents it from slipping?"

"If he hadn't knotted it like that he would have had to stand there
holding it until his victim was dead. As it was, he didn't have to
wait."

I shivered a little at the thought of the scoundrel calmly tying the
knot to secure his noose, and then leaving his victim to twitch his
life out.

"It's no little trick to tie a knot like that," Godfrey added,
thoughtfully. "I should like to study it."

"All right," agreed Goldberger; "you can have it whenever you want
it," and he got a heavy manila envelope out of his pocket and placed
the cord carefully inside. "Now we must get that robe off. We can't
run any risk of having those finger-prints smeared."

It was a difficult job and a revolting one, for the body had stiffened
into its huddled posture, but at last the robe was removed and the
body itself lying at full length on its back on the couch. Seen thus,
with the light full on it, the face was horrible, and Goldberger laid
his handkerchief over the swollen and distorted features, while, at a
sign from him, Simmonds pulled down the portière from the inner door
and placed it over the body. Then the coroner picked up the robe and
held it out at arms' length.

"What kind of a freak dress is this, anyway?" he asked.

"It's a robe," said Godfrey. "Mr. Vaughan was a mystic."

"A what?"

"A mystic--a believer in Hinduism or some other Oriental religion."

"Did he dress this way all the time?"

"I believe so. It is probably the dress of his order."

Goldberger rolled the robe up carefully, and said nothing more; but I
could see from his expression that he had ceased to wonder why Vaughan
had come to a strange and violent end. Surely anything might happen to
a mystic! Then he placed the blood-stained handkerchief in another
envelope, and finally put his hand in his pocket and brought out half
a dozen cigars.

"Now," he said, "let's sit down and rest awhile. Simmonds tells me it
was you who called him, Mr. Godfrey. How did you happen to discover
the crime?"

The question was asked carelessly, but I could feel the alert mind
behind it. I knew that Godfrey felt it, too, from the way in which he
told the story, for he told it carefully, and yet with an air of
keeping nothing back.

Of the mysterious light he said nothing, but, starting with my finding
of the letter and summoning Swain to receive it, told of the
arrangements for the rendezvous, dwelling upon it lightly, as a
love-affair which could have no connection with the tragedy. He passed
on to his own arrival from the city, to Swain's return from the
rendezvous, and finally to the screams which had reached us, and to
the discovery we had made when we burst into the house.

"I summoned Dr. Hinman immediately," he added, "for Miss Vaughan
seemed to be in a serious condition; then I called Simmonds, and
suggested that he stop for you, Mr. Coroner, for I knew that the case
would interest you. Dr. Hinman arrived perhaps half an hour ahead of
you, and had Miss Vaughan put to bed at once. And I guess you know the
rest," he concluded.

We had all listened intently. I was pretty sure that Simmonds would
make no inferences which Godfrey wished to avoid; but I feared the
more penetrating mind of the coroner. His first question proved that I
was right to do so.

"Where is this man Swain?" he asked.

"He was suffering from the shock," said Godfrey, "and Lester and Dr.
Hinman took him over to my place and put him to bed. That's where they
were when you got here."

"He seemed to be suffering from a slight concussion," Hinman
explained. "There was a swelling on one side of his head, as though
some one had struck him, and the pupils of his eyes were
unsymmetrical. He had also a cut on the wrist," he added, after an
instant's hesitation.

"Ah!" commented Goldberger, with a glance at Godfrey. "Had it been
bleeding?"

"He cut himself when crossing the wall," Godfrey explained; "a mere
scratch, but I believe it _did_ bleed a good deal."

"Ah!" said Goldberger again; and then he turned to the doctor. "Did I
understand you to say that he went to sleep?"

"He certainly did. I gave him a good strong opiate to make sure of
it."

"Do you think he'll sleep till morning?"

"He'll sleep nine or ten hours, at least."

"Then _that's_ all right," said Goldberger, and settled back in his
chair again. "But didn't anybody live in this house except that old
man and his daughter? Aren't there any servants?"

"There must be some somewhere about," answered Godfrey, to whom the
question was addressed; "but Lester and I looked through the lower
floor and part of the upper one and didn't find any. There's a bell
there by the door, but nobody answered when I rang. We didn't have
time to go all over the house. We _did_ find one thing, though," he
added, as if by an afterthought.

"What was that?"

"There's an adept in one of the rooms upstairs."

Goldberger sat up and stared at him.

"An adept?" he repeated. "What's that?"

"An expert in mysticism. I judge that Vaughan was his pupil."

"Do you mean he's a Hindu?" asked the coroner, as though that would
explain everything.

But Godfrey was having his revenge.

"I don't know whether he's a Hindu or not," he said, airily. "I didn't
get a very good look at him."

"What was he doing?" Goldberger demanded.

"He was just sitting there."

Again Goldberger stared at him, this time suspiciously.

"But, good heavens, man!" he cried. "That was three or four hours ago!
You don't suppose he's sitting there yet!"

"Yes," said Godfrey drily, "I think he is."

Goldberger's face flushed, and he sprang to his feet impatiently.

"Show me the room," he commanded.

"Glad to," said Godfrey laconically, and led the way out into the
hall.

The whole crowd tailed along after him. As I rose to follow, I saw
that the outside world was turning grey with the approaching dawn.

The nurse, hearing our footsteps on the stairs, looked out in alarm,
and held up a warning finger. Godfrey paused for a word with her.

"How is she?" he asked.

"Sleeping quietly," said the nurse; "but please don't make any more
noise than you can help."

"We won't," Godfrey promised, and crossed the hall to the door leading
into the little entry. Then he paused and looked around at Goldberger.
"Better go slow here," he cautioned. "The adept has a pet cobra."

"A snake?"

"The deadliest snake in the world."

Goldberger drew back a little, as did all the others.

"I don't think it will bite us, though," added Godfrey, cheerfully,
"if we don't crowd it. It's sitting there, too," and he opened the
outer door, passed through, and held back the curtain at the farther
end.

I was just behind Goldberger and Simmonds, and I heard their gasp of
amazement, as they saw what lay beyond.

The scene had not changed in the slightest detail. The crystal sphere
still softly glowed, with intangible shadows flitting across its
surface; the adept still sat cross-legged staring into its depths;
opposite him, the cobra, its hood distended, swayed slowly to and fro.

But as we stood there staring, a single delicate ray of sunlight
coming through a pin-hole in the curtained window, struck the sphere
and seemed to extinguish it. The glow within it flickered and
fluttered and finally vanished, and it hung there dull and grey. An
instant later, the motionless figure raised its arms high in air, with
a motion somehow familiar; then it got slowly to its feet, crossed to
the window, drew back the curtain and flung wide the shutter.

The sun was just peeping over the trees to the east, and for a second
its light blinded me. Then I saw the adept bowing low before it, his
arms still extended. Once, twice, thrice he bowed, as before a deity,
while we stood there staring. Then he turned slowly toward us.

"Enter, friends," he said calmly. "The peace of the Holy One be on
you, and his love within your hearts!"




CHAPTER X

THE WHITE PRIEST OF SIVA


The adept was an impressive figure, as he stood there with the sun
behind him, throwing a yellow nimbus around his head. The robe he wore
was of a rich purple, and gave an added effect of height and dignity
to a figure already tall. His hair was dark and crinkled like
wind-swept water, his complexion dark, but with an under-blush of red
in the cheeks. His lips were scarlet and his eyes coal-black and of an
arresting brilliance. The whole effect he gave was of transcendent
energy and magnetism, nor did he show the slightest fatigue from his
long vigil.

His eyes swept our faces, as we stood crowded there in the doorway. He
did not seem surprised. If there was any expression in his face except
courteous inquiry, it was one of carefully suppressed amusement.

"Enter, friends," he repeated. "What is it you desire?"

His voice was rich and deep, and he spoke with a peculiar intonation,
but without accent. It was something of a shock to hear the ordinary
words of English speech coming from his lips, for they seemed formed
to utter prophecies in unknown tongues.

Goldberger took one step into the room, and then stopped abruptly.
Following his eyes, I saw that the cobra had also awakened from its
trance, and was regarding us steadily and hissing slightly. The adept
smiled as he saw us shrink back.

"Do not fear," he said. "Come, Toto," and stepping across the room, he
lifted the cobra in one hand and held it a moment close to him, gently
stroking the distended hood. The snake curled itself about his arm and
seemed to cuddle to him, but it kept its eyes fixed on us. I could not
but smile at the incongruity of its name. Toto was well enough for a
French poodle, but for a cobra!

After a moment, the adept lifted the lid of a round basket which stood
on the floor near the divan, dropped the snake gently into it, and
fastened down the lid. Then he clapped his hands softly, and an
instant later the curtains at the rear of the room parted and a
strange figure appeared between them.

It was the figure of a man, not over five feet tall and very thin. He
was almost as dark as a full-blooded negro, and the white burnoose
which was thrown about his shoulders and covered him to just below
the hips, made him look even darker. His legs were bare and seemed to
be nothing but skin and bone. The flat-nosed face, with its full lips
and prominent eyes, reminded me of an idol I had seen pictured
somewhere.

The newcomer bowed low before the adept, and, at a sign from him,
picked up Toto's basket and disappeared with it through the curtains.
He had not even glanced in our direction. The adept turned back to us.

"Now, friends," he said, "will you not enter?"

Goldberger led the way into the room and stopped to look about it. The
walls were hung with black velvet, so arranged that windows and doors
could be covered also, and the room was absolutely devoid of
furniture, save for a low, circular divan in the centre of which stood
the crystal sphere, supported, as I saw now, by a slender pedestal.

"I have a few questions to ask you," began Goldberger at last, in a
voice deferential despite himself.

"Proceed, sir," said the adept, courteously.

"Do you know that Mr. Vaughan is dead?"

The adept made a little deprecating gesture.

"Not dead," he protested. "A man does not die. His soul rejoins the
Over-soul, that is all. Yes, I know that at midnight the soul of my
pupil passed over."

"How did you learn that?" Goldberger demanded.

"I saw it in the sphere," replied the adept calmly.

"Where were you at the time?"

"I was gazing at the sphere."

"Do you mean," asked Goldberger incredulously, "that you sat for five
hours and more staring at that thing?"

"My vigil began at sundown," said the adept, with a slight smile.
"Last night was the White Night of Siva. It must be spent in
meditation by all who follow him."

Goldberger worried his moustache with nervous fingers, as he stared at
the adept, plainly at a loss how to proceed.

"Perhaps," ventured Godfrey, softly, "your crystal could give us some
further information which we very much desire."

The adept turned his dark eyes on the speaker, and it seemed to me
that they glittered more coldly, as though they recognised an
adversary.

"What information, sir?" he asked.

"Information as to the manner of Mr. Vaughan's passing--can you tell
us anything of that?"

The adept shook his head.

"I only saw the soul as it passed over. I knew, however, that it had
been torn from the body by violence."

"How did you know that?" broke in Goldberger.

"Because of its colour," answered the adept; and then, when he saw our
benumbed expressions, he explained. "Souls which pass in peace are
white; souls which the body has driven forth by its own hands are
black; souls which are torn from the body by an alien hand are red. My
pupil's soul was red."

I could see that Goldberger did not know whether to snort with
derision or to be impressed. He ended by smiling feebly. As for me, I
admit I was impressed.

"When an alien hand, as you put it, is used," said the coroner, "we
call it murder in this country, and the law tries to get hold of the
alien and to send his soul after his victim's. That's what we are
trying to do now. We are officers of the law."

The adept bowed.

"Any assistance I can give you," he said, softly, "I shall be glad to
give; though to do murder, as you call it, is not always to do wrong."

"Our law doesn't make such nice distinctions," said Goldberger,
drily. "May I ask your profession?"

"I am a White Priest of Siva," said the adept, touching his forehead
lightly with the fingers of his left hand, as in reverence.

"Who is Siva?"

"The Holy One, the Over-soul, from whom we come and to whom we all
return."

Again Goldberger worried his moustache.

"Well," he said, at last, "until the mystery is cleared up, I must ask
you not to leave this house."

"I have no wish to leave it, sir."

"And the other fellow--the fellow who took away the snake--where was
he last night?"

"He slept in a small room opening into this one."

"May I look into it?"

"Certainly," and the adept swept aside the curtains.

The room into which we looked was not more than ten feet square, and
empty of furniture, except for a mat in the middle of the floor and
three or four baskets set against the wall. On the mat was squatted
the attendant, his legs crossed with feet uppermost, and his hands
held palm to palm before him. On the floor in front of him were what
looked to me like a strip of cloth, a bone and a tooth. He did not
raise his eyes at our entrance, but sat calmly contemplating these
relics.

Goldberger's moustache lost a few more hairs as he stood staring down
at this strange figure.

"What are those things? His grandmother's remains?" he asked, at last.

"Those are the attributes of Kali," said the adept gravely, as one
rebuking blasphemy.

"Very interesting, no doubt," commented the coroner drily. "Would it
disturb the gentleman too much to ask him a few questions?"

"He speaks no English, but I shall be glad to translate for you."

The coroner thought this over for a moment, and then shook his head.

"No," he said; "I'll wait for the court interpreter. You might tell
him, though, that there will be officers of the law on duty below, and
that he is not to leave the house."

"I will caution him," answered the adept, and let the curtain fall, as
we passed out.

"I suppose there are some other servants somewhere about the place?"
asked Goldberger.

"There are three--they sleep on the floor above."

"Are they Hindus, too?"

"Oh, no," and the adept smiled. "Two of them are German and the other
is Irish."

The coroner reddened a little, for the words somehow conveyed a
subtle rebuke.

"That is all for to-day," he said; "unless Mr. Simmonds has some
questions?" and he looked at his companion.

But Simmonds, to whom all these inquiries had plainly been successive
steps into the darkness, shook his head.

"Then we will bid you good-morning," added Goldberger, still a little
on his dignity. "And many thanks for your courtesy."

The adept responded with a low bow and with a smile decidedly
ironical. I, at least, felt that we had got the worst of the
encounter.

Goldberger, without a word, led the way up the stair that mounted to
the attic story, and there soon succeeded in routing out the three
servants. The Germans proved to be a man and wife, well past middle
age, the former the gardener and the latter the cook. Erin was
represented by a red-haired girl who was the housemaid. All of them
were horrified when told their master had been murdered, but none of
them could shed any light on the tragedy. They had all been in bed
long before midnight, and had not been disturbed by any of the noises
of the night.

This could be the more readily understood when, as a little
investigation showed, we found that they had all slept with doors
locked and windows closed and shuttered. Any sounds from the house
would really have to penetrate two doors to reach them, for their
rooms were at the end of an entry, closed by an outer door. As to the
windows, it was the rule of the house that they should always be
closed and tightly shuttered during the night. They knew of no
especial reason for the rule, though the Irish girl remarked that,
with heathen in the house and lunatics, there was no telling how the
nights were spent.

They were all evidently innocent of any connection with the tragedy;
but Goldberger, for some ridiculous reason, brought them downstairs
with him and made them look at their master's body. This had no result
except to send the Irish girl into hysterics, and Hinman for a few
minutes had another patient on his hands.

"Well," said Goldberger, passing his hand wearily across his forehead,
"I guess there's nothing more to be done. And I'm dead tired. I had
just got to bed when Simmonds called me. I'll set the inquest for ten
o'clock to-morrow morning, and I'll hold it here in this room. We'll
want you here, Mr. Godfrey, and you, Mr. Lester. And--oh, yes," he
added suddenly, "we'll want that Mr. Swain, whose story I haven't
heard yet. No doubt of his appearing is there?"

"Absolutely none," I assured him.

"I could put him under guard, of course," said Goldberger, pensively,
"for I'm sure he'll prove to be a very important witness; but if you
will be personally responsible for him, Mr. Lester...."

"I will," I agreed, and Goldberger nodded.

"Have him here at ten o'clock, then," he said.

"Dr. Hinman would better see him again to-day," I suggested.

"I'll call about four o'clock this afternoon," the doctor promised;
and, leaving Goldberger to complete his arrangements and Simmonds to
post his men, Godfrey and I stepped out upon the lawn.

It was after five o'clock and the sun was already high. It scarcely
seemed possible that, only six hours before, Swain had crossed the
wall for the first time!

"We'd better go out as we came," Godfrey said, and turned across the
lawn. He walked with head down and face puckered with thought.

"Can you make anything of it?" I asked, but he only shook his head.

We soon reached the ladder, and Godfrey paused to look about him. The
shrubbery was broken in one place, as though some heavy body had
fallen on it, and this was evidently the mark of Swain's wild jump
from the wall.

At last, Godfrey motioned me to precede him, and, when I was over,
reached one ladder down to me and descended to my side. We replaced
the ladders against the shed, and then walked on toward the house. As
we turned the corner, we found Mrs. Hargis standing on the front
porch.

"Well, you _are_ out early!" she said.

"Yes," laughed Godfrey; "fact is, we haven't been to bed yet. Will you
have something to eat, Lester, before you turn in?"

A glass of milk was all I wanted; and five minutes later I mounted to
my room. I glanced in for a moment at Swain, who seemed to be sleeping
peacefully; and then darkened my room as well as I could and tumbled
into bed. I must have dropped asleep the moment my head touched the
pillow, for I remember nothing more until I opened my eyes to find
Godfrey standing over me.




CHAPTER XI

SWAIN'S STORY


"I hate to wake you, Lester," Godfrey said, smiling, "but it's nearly
four o'clock. Dr. Hinman will be here before long, and if you're going
to hear Swain's story, you'll have to be getting up."

I sat up in bed at once, all trace of sleepiness vanished.

"How is he?" I asked.

"He seems to be all right. He's been up for some time. I haven't said
anything to him about last night--I wanted the doctor to see him
first; besides, I thought you ought to be present."

"I'll be down right away," I said, and twenty minutes later, I found
Godfrey and Swain sitting together on the front porch. As Swain
returned my greeting, I was relieved to see that his eyes were no
longer fixed and staring, but seemed quite normal.

"Mrs. Hargis has your breakfast ready," said Godfrey, "and I think
I'll join you. Will you come, Mr. Swain?"

"No, thank you," Swain replied. "I had my breakfast only about an
hour ago. I'll just sit here, if you don't mind."

"All right," said Godfrey, "we won't be long," and together we went
back to the dining-room.

Mrs. Hargis was there, and greeted us as though stopping out till dawn
and breakfasting at four o'clock in the afternoon were the most
ordinary things in the world. A copy of the _Record_ was lying, as
usual, on the table, and a black headline caught my eye:

                  WORTHINGTON VAUGHAN
                       MURDERED

           *       *       *       *       *

               RICH RECLUSE STRANGLED TO
                  DEATH AT HIS HOME IN
                       THE BRONX

           *       *       *       *       *

I glanced at Godfrey in surprise.

"Yes," he said, reddening a little, "I was just in time to 'phone the
story in for the last edition. I called the doctor first, though,
Lester--you must give me credit for that! And it was a beautiful
scoop!"

"What time did you get up?" I asked.

"About noon. I sent down the full story for to-morrow morning's paper
just before I called you."

"Any developments?"

"None that I know of. Of course, I haven't heard Swain's story yet."

"Godfrey," I said, "it seems to me that this thing is going to look
bad for Swain--I think Goldberger suspects him already. A good deal
depends upon his story."

"Yes, it does," Godfrey agreed.

We finished the meal in silence. It was not a long one, for I, at
least, was anxious to get back to Swain. As we rejoined him on the
porch, Dr. Hinman's car came up the drive. He got out and shook hands
with us. As he greeted Swain, I saw him glance anxiously into his
eyes--and saw also that the glance reassured him.

"You're feeling better to-day," he said, sitting down by Swain's side.

"Yes," said Swain quietly, "I'm feeling all right again."

"How is Miss Vaughan, doctor?" I asked.

Swain jerked round toward the doctor.

"Is Miss Vaughan ill?" he demanded.

"She had a shock last night," answered the doctor, slowly; "but she's
getting along nicely. She'll have to be kept quiet for a few days."

I was looking at Swain curiously. He was rubbing his head
perplexedly, as though trying to bring some confused memory to the
surface of his mind.

"I seem to remember," he said, "that Miss Vaughan fainted, and that I
picked her up." Then he stopped and stared at us. "Is her father
dead?"

"Yes," I said, and he fell to rubbing his head again.

I glanced at Hinman, and he nodded slightly. I took it for assurance
that Swain might be questioned. Godfrey, who had gone indoors to get
some cigars, came back with a handful. All of us, including Swain,
lighted up.

"Now, Swain," I began, "I want you to tell us all that you remember of
last night's happenings. Both Mr. Godfrey and Dr. Hinman are in my
confidence and you may speak freely before them. I want them to hear
your story, because I want their advice."

There was a pucker of perplexity on Swain's face.

"I've been trying, ever since I woke up this morning, to straighten
out my remembrance of last night," he began, slowly; "but I haven't
succeeded very well. At least, everything seems to stop right in the
middle."

"Go ahead," I said, "and tell us what you do remember. Maybe it will
grow clearer as you recall it, or maybe we can fill in the gaps. Begin
at the moment you went over the wall. We know everything that happened
up to that time. You remember that clearly, don't you?"

"Oh, yes," said Swain. "I remember all that," and he settled back in
his chair. "Well, after I went down the ladder, I found myself in a
clump of shrubbery, and beyond that was a path. I knew that the arbour
where I was to meet Miss Vaughan was in the corner of the grounds at
the back next to Mr. Godfrey's place, so I turned back along the wall,
leaving the path, which curved away from it. It was very dark under
the trees, and I had to go slowly for fear of running into one of
them. But I finally found the arbour. I struck a match to assure
myself that it was empty, and then sat down to wait. Once or twice I
fancied I heard some one moving outside, but it was only the wind
among the trees, I guess, for it was fully half an hour before Miss
Vaughan came."

I could see how his hand was trembling on the arm of his chair, and he
paused a moment to collect himself.

"What Miss Vaughan told me," he went on, at last, and I saw that of
the details of the meeting he did not intend to speak, "convinced me
that her father was quite mad--much worse than I had suspected. I
knew, of course, that he was a student of the supernatural, but since
the coming of this yogi...."

"This what?" Hinman interrupted.

"A yogi," Swain answered, turning toward him, "is, as nearly as I can
make out, a sort of high priest of Hinduism. He knows all its secrets,
and is supposed to be able to do all sorts of supernatural things.
This fellow who lived with Mr. Vaughan is a yogi. Mr. Vaughan was his
disciple."

"Where did the yogi come from?" Godfrey asked.

"I don't know. I don't think Miss Vaughan knows. He arrived, with his
attendant, about six months ago; and since then things have gone from
bad to worse. There has been crystal-gazing and star-worship and
necromancy of all sorts. I confess I didn't understand very much of
it," he added. "It was all so wild and weird; but it ended not only in
Mr. Vaughan's becoming a convert to whatever religion it is the yogi
practises, but in a determination that his daughter should become a
priestess of the cult. It was from that she wished me to help her to
escape."

He stopped and again rubbed his head slowly.

"As I tell it," he went on, at last, "it sounds absurd and
unbelievable; but as she told it, there in the darkness, with those
strange rustlings round us, it sent the chills up and down my spine.
Perhaps those Orientals _do_ know more about the supernatural than we
give them credit for; at any rate, I know that Miss Vaughan had been
impressed with the yogi's power. It fascinated and at the same time
horrified her. She said he had a hideous snake, a cobra, which he
petted as she would pet a kitten...."

His voice broke off again, and he wiped the perspiration from his
forehead. I myself felt decidedly nervous. Godfrey threw away his
cigar, which had broken in his fingers.

"At any rate," Swain went on, "I was so upset by what she told me that
I could think of nothing to do except to beg her to come away with me
at once. I remembered my promise to you, Mr. Lester, but I was sure
you would approve. I told her about you--that it was into your hands
the letter had fallen. She said she had seen you looking at her from a
tree and had known at a glance that she could trust you. You didn't
tell me you were in a tree," he added.

"Yes," I said, awkwardly. "I was just taking a little look over the
landscape. Rather foolish of me, wasn't it?"

"Well, it was mighty fortunate, anyway. She had written the letter,
but she had no idea how she was going to get it to me."

"You mean she couldn't go out when she wanted to?" demanded Godfrey.

"I gathered from what she told me," said Swain, his face flushing with
anger, "that she has been practically a prisoner ever since the yogi
arrived. Besides, even if she had succeeded in mailing the letter, it
wouldn't have reached me until too late."

"In what way too late?"

"Her father seems to have had a sudden turn for the worse yesterday;
he became almost violent in insisting that she consent to his plan. He
told her that the life of his own soul as well as of hers depended
upon it. He threatened--I don't know what. The yogi talked to her
afterwards. He, of course, believed, or pretended to believe, as her
father did; moreover, he told her that her father would certainly
suffer a serious mental shock if she refused, perhaps a fatal one. In
despair, she finally agreed, on the condition that she be given three
days in which to prepare herself. If she did not hear from me in that
time, she had made up her mind to consent."

Swain stopped again, and I lay back in my chair, wondering if such
things were possible in this twentieth century, here within the
boundaries of Greater New York! My brain reeled at the absurdity of it!

"Vaughan was undoubtedly suffering from mania," said Dr. Hinman, in a
low voice. "The symptoms, as Mr. Swain describes them, are unmistakable."

"It was that argument I used," said Swain. "I told her that, since he
was clearly mad, she must, in self-defence, place herself beyond his
reach. But she refused to leave him. Then, I argued, in kindness to
him she must have him committed to some institution where he would be
taken care of, and where he might, in time, regain his sanity. I told
her that it would be criminal folly to permit him to remain longer
under the influence of the yogi. She had to agree with me; and she
finally consented to sign an affidavit to the facts as I have told
them, and a petition asking that a commission be appointed to examine
her father. You were to have drawn up the papers to-day, Mr. Lester,
and I was to have taken them to her for signature to-night."

"That would have settled the matter," said Godfrey, thoughtfully.
"It's too bad it wasn't settled in that way. What else happened, Mr.
Swain?"

"Miss Vaughan had grown very nervous, with all this discussion, and at
last she sprang to her feet and said she must go, or her father would
discover her absence. We rose to leave the arbour, and at that
instant, a white-robed figure sprang to her side, seized her and tore
her away from me. I was too startled for an instant to resist; then,
as I started toward them, Marjorie pushed me back.

"'Go! Go!' she cried. 'It is my father!'

"But he stopped me. In a voice shaking and husky with rage, he warned
me that if I entered the place again, my life would be forfeit. I
can't repeat the horrible things he said. I could see his eyes
gleaming like a wild beast's. He cursed me. I had never been cursed
before," and Swain smiled thinly, "and I confess it wasn't pleasant.
Then he led his daughter away.

"I stood staring after them. I didn't know what to do. I felt like a
madman myself. I sat down and tried to collect my thoughts. I saw that
some new plan must be made--that there was no hope of meeting Marjorie
again. I was sick with fear for her; I thought of following to the
house and compelling her to come with me at once. And then, suddenly,
I saw two eyes gleaming at me. They were not human eyes--they were too
close together--and they were swaying gently back and forth in the
air, about a foot from the ground. I gazed at them, fascinated, and
then I heard a soft, low whistle, followed by a faint hissing, as the
eyes fell forward.

"In a flash, I knew what it was--the cobra; I knew why it was
there--Vaughan had said my life was forfeit. I sprang up with a
shriek, dashed along the seat to the door and out into the darkness. I
struck my head against something--a tree, I suppose; but I kept on,
and reached the wall and got over it somehow--it is all confused,
after that. I seem to remember hearing Marjorie scream, and finding
her lying beside her father, who was dead--but I can't put things
together," and he rubbed his head helplessly.

"I'll put them together for you," said Godfrey. "When you ran into the
tree, you suffered a partial concussion. It's lucky it wasn't total,
or Toto would have got you!"

"Toto?"

"That, I believe, is the cobra's name," explained Godfrey, with a
smile; "unless, of course, there are two of them." And he told Swain
in detail of the events which had followed.

Swain listened with staring eyes. I did not blame him. Indeed, I felt
that my own eyes were staring a little, though I already knew the
story. But Godfrey, with a gift of narration born of long newspaper
experience, told it in a way that made its horror salient and left one
gasping.

"There is one question I want to ask you, Swain," he said, in
conclusion, "and I want you to think carefully before you answer it.
During your altercation with Mr. Vaughan, did you at any time touch
him?"

"Touch him? No, of course not," and Swain shook his head decidedly.

"You are sure of that?" asked Godfrey earnestly.

"Perfectly sure," said Swain, looking at him in astonishment. "I was
never within three feet of him."

Godfrey sprang to his feet with a gesture of relief.

"I seem to need a cocktail," he said, in another tone. "Isn't that the
prescription for all of us, doctor?"

"Yes," assented Hinman, smiling, "and, after that, complete change of
subject!"




CHAPTER XII

GUESSES AT THE RIDDLE


We tried to follow Dr. Hinman's prescription, but not with any great
success, for it is difficult to talk about one thing and think about
another. So the doctor took himself off, before long, and Swain
announced that he himself would have to return to the city. He had
come out without so much as a tooth-brush, he pointed out; his
trousers were in a lamentable condition, and, while Godfrey's coat was
welcome, it was far from a perfect fit.

"Which reminds me," he added, "that I don't know what has become of my
own coat and shirt."

I looked at Godfrey quickly.

"No, I forgot them," he said. "They're over in the library at
Elmhurst," he added to Swain. "You can get them to-morrow."

"I shall have to be there to-morrow, then?"

"Yes, at the inquest; I've promised to produce you there," I said.

"At what time?"

"You'd better be there by ten."

"Very well; that's all the more reason for getting back to my base of
supplies. If I went on the stand looking like this, the jury would
probably think I was the murderer!" he added, laughing.

My answering smile was decidedly thin. Godfrey did not even try to
force one.

"Wait a few minutes," he suggested, "and I'll take you down in my car.
I'll try to get back early, Lester," he added, apologetically. "I'm
far from an ideal host--but you'll find some books on my desk that may
interest you--I got them up to-day. Take a look at them after dinner."

He went back to bring out his car, and Swain sat down again beside me.

"Mr. Lester," he said, in a low voice, "I hope you haven't forgotten
your promise."

"What promise?"

"To put Miss Vaughan in a safe place and to look after her interests."

"No," I said, "I haven't forgotten. I am going to ask to see her after
the inquest to-morrow. If she wishes us to represent her, we will."

"And to protect her," he added, quickly. "She hasn't even a mad father
now!"

"She's safe enough for the present," I pointed out. "Dr. Hinman has
employed another nurse, so that one is with her all the time."

"I won't be satisfied," said Swain, "till you get her out of that
house and away from those damned Hindus. One nurse, or even two,
wouldn't stop them."

"Stop them from what?"

"I don't know," and he twisted his fingers helplessly.

"Well, the police will stop them. There are three or four men on duty
there, with orders to let no one in or out."

His face brightened.

"Ah, that's better," he said. "I didn't know that. How long will they
be there?"

"Till after the inquest, anyway."

"And you will see Miss Vaughan after the inquest?"

"Yes."

"And urge her to go to Mr. and Mrs. Royce?"

"Yes--but I don't think she'll need much urging. I'll get a note from
Mrs. Royce. I'll telephone to Mr. Royce now, and you can stop and get
the note as you come up in the morning."

Godfrey's car glided up the drive and stopped at the porch. Swain held
out his hand and clasped mine warmly.

"Thank you, Mr. Lester," he said; and a moment later the car turned
into the highway and passed from sight.

Then I went in, got Mr. Royce on the 'phone, and give him a brief
outline of the incidents of the night before. He listened with an
exclamation of astonishment from time to time, and assented heartily
when I suggested that Miss Vaughan might be placed in Mrs. Royce's
care temporarily.

"She's a beautiful girl," I concluded, "and very young. I agree with
Swain that she mustn't be left alone in that house."

"Certainly she mustn't," said my partner. "I'll have Mrs. Royce write
the note, and get a room ready for her."

"Of course," I said, "it's possible she won't come--though I believe
she'll be glad to. Or there may be a family lawyer who will want to
look after her. Only she didn't appear to know of any when she was
talking to Swain."

"Well, bring her along if you can," said Mr. Royce. "We'll be glad to
have her. And take your time about coming back, if you're needed up
there. We're getting along all right."

I thanked him, and hung up; and presently Mrs. Hargis came to summon
me to dinner. That meal over, I went in to Godfrey's desk to see what
the books were he had suggested that I look at. There was quite a pile
of them, and I saw that they all related to mysticism or to the
religions of India. There was Sir Monier Williams's "Brahmanism and
Hinduism," Hopkins's "The Religions of India," a work on
crystallomancy, Mr. Lloyd Tuckey's standard work on "Hypnotism and
Suggestion," and some half dozen others whose titles I have forgotten.
And as I looked at them, I began to understand one reason for
Godfrey's success as a solver of mysteries--no detail of a subject
ever escaped him.

I lit my pipe, sat down, and was soon deep in the lore of the East. I
must confess that I did not make much of it. In that maze of
superstition, the most I could do was to pick up a thread here and
there. The yogi had referred to the White Night of Siva, and I soon
found out that Siva is one of the gods of Hinduism--one of a great
trilogy: Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Siva the
destroyer. He had also spoken of the attributes of Kali, and, after a
little further search, I discovered that Kali was Siva's wife--a most
unprepossessing and fiendish female.

But when I passed on to Hinduism itself, and tried to understand its
tenets and its sects, I soon found myself out of my depth. They were
so jumbled, so multitudinous, and so diverse that I could get no clear
idea of them. I read of the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Brâhmanas; of
metaphysical abstractions too tenuous to grasp; of karna or action,
of maya or illusion, and I know not what "tangled jumble of ghosts and
demons, demi-gods, and deified saints, household gods, village gods,
tribal gods, universal gods, with their countless shrines and temples
and din of discordant rites." At last, in despair, I gave it up, and
turned to the book on crystallomancy.

Here, at least, was something comprehensible, if not altogether
believable, and I read with interest of the antiquity of
crystal-gazing as a means of inducing hallucination for the purpose of
seeking information not to be gained by any normal means. I read of
its use in China, in Assyria, in Egypt, in Arabia, in India, in Greece
and Rome; of how its practitioners in the Middle Ages were looked upon
as heretics and burnt at the stake or broken on the wheel; of the
famous Dr. Dee, and so down to the present time. The scryers or seers
sometimes used mirrors, sometimes vessels filled with water, but
usually a polished stone, and beryl was especially esteemed.

The effect of gazing at these intently for a time was to abstract the
mind from normal sensory impressions, and to induce a state of partial
hypnosis during which the scryer claimed he could perceive in the
crystal dream-pictures of great vividness, scenes at a distance,
occurrences of the past, and of the future.

I was still deep in this, when I heard a step outside, the door
opened, and Godfrey came in. He smiled when he saw what I was doing.

"How have you been getting along?" he asked.

"Not very well," and I threw the book back on the table. "The
crystal-gazing isn't so bad--one can understand that; but the jumble
of abstractions which the Hindus call religion is too much for me. I
didn't know it was so late," I added, and looked at my watch; but it
was not yet eleven o'clock.

"I'm earlier than usual," said Godfrey. "I cut loose as soon as I
could, because I thought we'd better talk things over. I saw Simmonds
in town to-night."

"Ah," I said; "and what did he tell you?"

"Nothing I didn't know already. The police have discovered nothing
new--or, if they have, they're keeping it dark until to-morrow.
Simmonds did, however, regale me with his theory of the case. He says
the murder was done either by one of the Hindus or by young Swain."

"What do _you_ think?" I asked.

"I'm inclined to agree with Simmonds," said Godfrey, grimly. "With the
emphasis on the Hindus," he added, seeing the look on my face, "I
don't believe Swain had any hand in it."

"Neither do I," I agreed, heartily. "In fact, such a theory is too
absurd to discuss."

"Just the same," said Godfrey, slowly, "I'm glad he didn't touch
Vaughan. If he had happened to seize him by the neck, while they were
struggling together,--in other words, if those finger-prints
Goldberger found had happened to be Swain's--things would have looked
bad for him. I'm hoping they'll turn out to belong to one of the
Hindus--but, as I said to Goldberger, I'm afraid that's too good to be
true."

"Which one of the Hindus?" I asked.

"Oh, the Thug, of course."

I sat bolt upright.

"The Thug?" I echoed.

"Didn't you get that far?" and Godfrey picked up one of the books and
ran rapidly through the pages. "You remember we found him squatting on
the floor with a rag and a tooth and a bone in front of him?"

"Yes."

"And do you remember how the yogi described them, when Goldberger
asked him about them?"

"Very distinctly--he called them the attributes of Kali."

"Now listen to this: 'The Thugs are a religious fraternity, committing
murders in honor of Kali, the wife of Siva, who, they believe, assists
them and protects them. Legend asserts that she presented her
worshippers with three things, the hem of her lower garment to use as
a noose, a rib to use as a knife, and a tooth to use as a pick-axe in
burying the victims.'" He glanced at me, and then went on: "'But the
knife was little used, for the religious character of an assassination
came to depend more and more upon its bloodless character, and for
this a noose was used, with which the victim was strangled. The
aversion to bloodshed became in time so great that many sects of
Thuggee consider it defiling to touch human blood!'" He closed the
book and threw it on the table. "Don't you think that proves the
case?"

"Yes," I said, thoughtfully. "And the yogi--is he also a Thug?"

"Oh, no; a White Priest of Siva could never be a Thug. The worship of
Siva and of Kali are the very opposites of each other. The Saivas are
ascetics. That is," he added, in another tone, "if the fellow is
really a Saiva and not just a plain fraud."

"All these fellows are frauds, more or less, aren't they?" I
questioned.

"No," was Godfrey's unexpected answer; "the real yogin are no doubt
sincere; but a real yogi wouldn't waste his time on a soft-brained old
man, and fire sky-rockets off at midnight to impress him. My own
opinion is that this fellow is a fakir--a juggler, a sleight-of-hand
man--and, of course, a crook."

"Well?" I asked, as Godfrey stopped and failed to continue.

"Well, that's as far as I've got. Oh, yes--there's Toto. A cobra is
one of a fakir's stock properties."

"But, Godfrey," I protested, "he is no ignorant roadside juggler. He's
a cultivated man--an unusual man."

"Certainly he is--most unusual. But that doesn't disprove my guess; it
only makes the problem harder. Even a roadside juggler doesn't do his
tricks for nothing--what reward is it this fellow's working for? It
must be a big one, or it wouldn't tempt him."

"I suppose Vaughan paid him well," I ventured.

"Yes; but did you look at him, Lester? You've called him unusual, but
that word doesn't begin to express him. He's extraordinary. No doubt
Vaughan _did_ pay him well, but it would take something more than that
to persuade such a man to spend six months in a place like that. And I
think I can guess at the stake he's playing for."

"You mean Miss Vaughan?"

"Just that," and Godfrey leaned back in his chair.

I contemplated this theory for some moments in silence. It was, at
least, a theory and an interesting one--but it rested on air. There
was no sort of foundation for it that I could see, and at last I said
so.

"I know it's pretty thin," Godfrey admitted, "but it's the best I've
been able to do--there's so little to build a theory out of. But I'm
going to see if I can't prove one part of it true to-night."

"Which part?"

"About his being a fakir. Here's my theory: that hocus-pocus on the
roof at midnight was for the purpose of impressing Vaughan. No doubt
he believed it a real spiritual manifestation, whereas it was only a
clever bit of jugglery. Now that Vaughan is dead, that particular bit
of jugglery will cease until there is some new victim to impress. In
fact, it has ceased already. There was no star last night."

"But you know why," I pointed out. "The yogi spent the night in
contemplation. We can bear witness to that."

"We can't bear witness to when he started in," said Godfrey, drily.
"We didn't see him till after half-past twelve. However, accepting his
explanation, there would be no reason for omitting the phenomenon
to-night, if it's a genuine one."

"No," I agreed.

"And if it _is_ omitted," Godfrey went on, "it will be pretty
conclusive evidence that it isn't genuine. Although," he went on
hurriedly, "I don't need any proof of that--anything else would be
unbelievable." He glanced at his watch. "It's ten minutes to twelve,"
he said. "Come along."

I followed him out of the house and through the grove with very mixed
sensations. If the star _didn't_ fall, it would tend to prove that it
was, as Godfrey had said, merely a fake arranged to impress a
credulous old man; but suppose it _did_ fall! That was a part of the
test concerning which Godfrey had said nothing. Suppose it _did_ fall!
What then?

So it was in silence that I followed Godfrey up the ladder and took my
place on the limb. But Godfrey seemed to have no uneasiness.

"We won't have long to wait," he said. "We'll wait till five minutes
after twelve, just to make sure. It must be twelve now. I wish I could
persuade that fellow to show me how the fake was worked, for it was
certainly a good one--one of the best...."

He stopped abruptly, staring out into the darkness. I was staring,
too, for there, against the sky, a light began to glow and brighten.
It hung for a moment motionless, and then began slowly to descend,
steadily, deliberately, as of set purpose. Lower and lower it sank, in
a straight line, hovered for an instant, and burst into a million
sparks.

In the flare of light, a white-robed figure stood, gazing upwards, its
arms strained toward the sky.

As we went silently down the ladder, a moment later, it seemed to me
that I could hear Godfrey's theory crashing about his ears.




CHAPTER XIII

FRANCISCO SILVA


It was not quite ten o'clock when Godfrey and I turned in at the gates
of Elmhurst, next morning, and made our way up the drive to the house,
but in the library we found a considerable company already assembled.
Goldberger was there, with Freylinghuisen his physician, his clerk,
his stenographer, and the men who were to constitute the jury;
Simmonds was there, and with him was an alert little man in glasses,
who, Godfrey told me in an aside, was Sylvester, the head of the
Identification Bureau, and the greatest expert on finger-prints in
America. The district attorney had sent up an assistant, also with a
stenographer, and altogether the room was decidedly crowded.

It became impossible a moment later, when a string of automobiles
puffed up the drive and disgorged a mob of reporters and
photographers. As many as the room would hold pushed into it, and the
others stood outside in the drive and complained loudly. The
complaints of the photographers were especially varied and forceful.
Goldberger looked around him in despair, mopping his face angrily,
for the crowded room was very hot.

"You fellows will have to get out of here," he said to the reporters.
"There's no room. I'll give you a transcript of the proceedings after
they're over."

The protests redoubled. How were they to get any human interest out of
a transcript? Besides, there were the photographers. What did he
expect them to do--photograph the transcript? And finally, the law
required that the hearing be public, so they had a right to be
present. It was a tense moment, the more so since Goldberger was by no
means insensible of the value of newspaper popularity to a man in
public life.

"Why not go out on the lawn?" Godfrey suggested. "It's only a question
of moving some chairs and tables, and the boys will all lend a hand."

The boys applauded, almost forgiving Godfrey his scoop, protested
their entire willingness to lend two hands if necessary, and, when
Goldberger nodded his approval, fell to work with a will. The lower
floor of the house was denuded, the garden seats pressed into service,
and at the end of five minutes, the court was established amid the
circle of trees, the reporters had their coats off and their pipes
lighted, the photographers ditto and their cameras placed. Good humour
was restored; peace reigned; and Goldberger smiled again, for he knew
that the adjectives with which the reporters would qualify his name
would be complimentary ones!

He took his place, rapped for order, and instructed his clerk to swear
the jury. Nobody paid much attention to the jury, for it was a
recognised device for paying small political debts, and its verdict
was usually in strict accord with the wishes of the presiding officer.
Then Goldberger looked at the vacant chair which I had kept beside me.

"By the way, Mr. Lester," he said, "I don't see Mr. Swain."

"He had to go back to the city last night," I explained, "to get some
fresh clothes. He had an errand or two to do this morning, and may
have been detained. I left word at the house for him to come over here
at once."

"You seem to have a good deal of confidence in him," Goldberger
remarked.

"I have," I answered quietly. "A great deal."

Goldberger frowned a little, but proceeded to open the case without
further delay. Godfrey was the first witness, and told his story much
as he had told it the night before. I followed him, but contributed no
new details. Both of us were excused without cross-examination.

To my great satisfaction, Swain arrived while I was testifying, and I
could not deny myself a triumphant glance at Goldberger, but he was
studying some memoranda and affected not to notice it. As soon as I
left the stand, Swain came and sat down beside me and gave me a
letter. It was addressed to Miss Vaughan.

"It's from Mrs. Royce," he said. "She's a trump! She's determined that
Marjorie shall come to her. She says if you don't bring her, she'll
come after her herself. Do you know how she is this morning?"

"No," I said; "I haven't seen Hinman. But how are you?"

"Oh, I'm all right again--head a little sore yet where I bumped
it--but otherwise as fit as a fiddle."

"You look it!" I said; and I was glad, because I wanted him to make a
good impression on the stand. I knew what weight appearances often
had; and no jury, I told myself, would believe that this bright-eyed,
fresh-coloured boy could have had any hand in a brutal murder.

Just then Hinman's name was called, and an officer hurried away to the
house after him. They returned together almost at once, and Hinman was
placed on the stand. He told of being summoned by Godfrey, and of the
events which followed. He said that the murder had been committed
about midnight, that death had been due to strangulation; and
identified the cord and the blood-stained handkerchief which the
coroner submitted to him. I fancied that Swain lost a little of his
colour when he saw the handkerchief and learned where it had been
found, but he made no remark.

"Will Miss Vaughan be able to testify?" Goldberger inquired, just
before the doctor stepped down.

"Unless it is absolutely necessary, I think she would better be
excused," Hinman answered. "She is still very nervous. The ordeal
might cause a serious collapse."

"We will try to get along without her," assented Goldberger. "If
necessary, I can take her deposition. Is she in bed?"

"Yes; I am keeping her as quiet as possible."

"Very well; we won't disturb her," said Goldberger, and Hinman was
excused, and Freylinghuisen called. He merely testified to the cause
of death and that the autopsy had shown that the deceased was in fair
health and without organic disease.

Then the servants were called, but their evidence was unimportant.
They had gone to bed about ten o'clock, and had not awakened until the
coroner himself had pounded at the door. They had heard no unusual
sound. Yes, they had slept with their doors locked and windows
shuttered because that was the rule of the house. Yes, even in the
hottest weather; that made no difference, since each of their rooms
was fitted with a ventilator.

Questioned as to the manner of life of the other inmates of the house,
the German and his wife were non-committal. They had been with the
family a long time; had taken care of the place when their master was
abroad; only after his return had it been necessary to get another
servant. He had been at home for a year, and the Hindus had arrived
about six months later. Yes, they knew their master was studying some
strange religion, but that was no affair of theirs, and they had never
seen anything wrong. He had always treated them well; was a little
strange and absent-minded at times; but neither of them really saw
much of him. He never interfered in the household affairs, Miss
Vaughan giving such instructions as were necessary. The man spent most
of his time in the grounds, and the woman in the kitchen. She was a
little petulant over the fact that one of the Hindus--the "ugly
one"--refused to eat her cooking, but insisted on preparing his own
food. Also, the housemaid had told her that there was a snake, but she
had never seen it.

From the Irish housemaid a little more information was obtained.
Neither Mr. Vaughan nor the yogi ate any breakfast; indeed, they
rarely left their rooms before noon. The other Hindu mixed himself up
some sort of mess over the kitchen stove. Miss Vaughan breakfasted
alone at nine o'clock. At such times, she was accustomed to talk over
household affairs with the maid, and after breakfast would visit the
kitchen and make a tour of the grounds and garden. The remainder of
her day would be spent in reading, in playing the piano, in doing
little household tasks, or in walking about the grounds with her
father. Yes, sometimes the yogi would join them, and there would be
long discussions. After dinner, in the library, there would also be
long discussions, but the girl had no idea what they were about. She
heard a fragment of them occasionally, but had never been able to make
anything of them. In fact, from the way they dressed and all, she had
come to the conclusion that Mr. Vaughan and the yogi were both a
little crazy, but quite inoffensive and harmless.

"And how about Miss Vaughan?" asked the coroner.

"Miss Vaughan, bless her heart, wasn't crazy," said the girl quickly;
"not a bit of it. She was just sad and lonely,--as who wouldn't be!
She never went out--in the five months I've been here, she's never
been off the place; and them front gates was never opened to let
anybody in. The only people who come in were the grocer and milk-man
and such-like, through the little door at the side."

"You say you have been here five months?"

"Yes, sir."

"How did you come to apply for the place?"

"I didn't apply for it. I was sent here by an employment bureau. Miss
Marjorie engaged me. I didn't see the Hindus till afterwards, or I
don't think I'd have took it. After that, I stayed for Miss Marjorie's
sake."

"You thought she needed you?"

"Yes, I did. With her father moonin' round in a kind of trance, and
the yogi lookin' at her with eyes like live coals, and a snake that
stood on its tail, and the other naygur going around with nothin' on
but a diaper, I thought she needed somebody to look after her; and
says I, 'Annie Crogan, you're the girl to do it!'"

There was a ripple of laughter and the pencils of the reporters flew
across their paper. It was the first gleam to enliven a prosaic and
tiresome hearing.

"Were the Hindus obtrusive in any way?" asked the coroner.

"Oh, no; they minded their business; I've no complaint on that
score."

"Did you see any of their religious practices?"

"I wouldn't call them religious--quite the contrary. I've seen them
wavin' their arms and bowin' to the sun and settin' in the dark
starin' at a glass globe with a light in it; that's about all. I got
used to it, after a while, and just went on about my work without
takin' any notice."

There was little more to be got from her, and finally she was excused.
The reporters yawned. The jury twitched nervously. Worthington Vaughan
was dead; he had been strangled--so much was clear; but not a
scintilla of evidence had as yet been introduced as to who had
strangled him. Then a movement of interest ran through the crowd, for
a policeman came from the direction of the house accompanied by two
strange figures. One was the yogi, in robes of dazzling white; the
other his attendant, wearing something more than a diaper, indeed, but
with his thin brown legs bare.

The yogi bowed to Goldberger with grave courtesy, and, at a word from
the attendant policeman, sat down in the witness-chair. Everybody was
leaning forward looking at him, and the cameras were clicking in
chorus, but he seemed scarcely aware of the circle of eager faces.

"Hold up your right hand, please," began Goldberger, after
contemplating him for a moment.

"For what purpose?" asked the yogi.

"I'm going to swear you."

"I do not understand."

"I'm going to put you on oath to tell nothing but the truth,"
explained the coroner.

"An oath is unnecessary," said the yogi with a smile. "To speak the
truth is required by my religion."

There was something impressive in the words, and Goldberger slowly
lowered his arm.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Francisco Silva."

"You are not a Hindu?"

"I am of their faith."

"But by birth?"

"I am a Portuguese."

"Born in India?"

"Born at Goa."

The coroner paused. He had never heard of Goa. Neither had I. Neither,
I judged, had any one else present. In this, however, I was wrong.
Godfrey had heard of it, and afterwards referred me to Marryat's
"Phantom Ship" as his source of information.

"Goa," Silva explained, seeing our perplexity, "is a colony owned by
Portugal on the Malabar coast, some distance below Bombay."

"How does it come that you speak English so well?"

"I was educated at Bombay, and afterwards at Oxford and at Paris."

"But you are by religion a Hindu?"

"I am a Saiva--a follower of Siva, the Lord of life and death."

As he spoke, he touched his forehead with the fingers of his left
hand. There was a moment's silence. Goldberger's moustache, I noted
with a smile, was beginning to suffer again.

"You are what is called an adept?" he asked, at last.

"Some may call me that," said Silva, "but incorrectly. Among my fellow
Saivas, I am known as a White Priest, a yogi, a teacher of the law."

"Mr. Vaughan was your pupil?"

"Yes; for six months he was my pupil."

"In what way did you come to accept this position?"

"Two years ago, Mr. Vaughan visited the monastery of our order in
Crete. He was at that time merely a student of Orientalism, and came
to us from curiosity. But his interest grew; and after a year spent in
studying the holy books, he asked that a teacher be sent to him. There
was none at that time who could be spared; but six months ago, having
completed a task which had occupied me in Paris, I was assigned to
this."

"Do you always go to so much trouble to secure converts?" questioned
Goldberger, a little cynically.

"Usually we require that the period of study be passed at one of our
monasteries. But this case was exceptional."

"In what way?"

"It was our hope," explained the yogi, calmly, "that Mr. Vaughan would
assist us in spreading the Great Truth by endowing a monastery for us
in this country."

"Ah!" and Goldberger looked at him. "Did he agree to do so?"

"He did," answered the yogi, still more calmly. "This estate was to
have been given to us for that purpose, together with an endowment
sufficient to maintain it. Mr. Vaughan himself hoped to gain the White
Robe and become a teacher."

"What was to become of his daughter?"

"It was his hope that she would become a priestess of our order."

"You hoped so, too, no doubt?" inquired Goldberger sweetly.

"I did. It is an office of high honour and great influence. She would
walk all her days in the shadow of the Holy One. So sweet a cup is
offered to few women. The number of priestesses is limited to nine."

Goldberger pulled at his moustache helplessly. Evidently the witness's
calm self-control was not to be broken down, or even ruffled.

"Please tell me where you were night before last," said the coroner,
finally.

"I was in this house."

"Did you see Mr. Vaughan?"

"I did not."

"How did you spend the night?"

"In contemplation. It was, as I have told you, the White Night of
Siva, sacred to him from sunset to sunrise."

"Do you mean that you spent the whole night sitting before that
crystal?" asked the coroner, incredulously.

"That is my meaning."

"You know nothing, then, of the death of Mr. Vaughan?"

"I saw his soul pass in the night. More than that I know not."

Again Goldberger twitched at his moustache. He was plainly at a loss
how to proceed.

"Was your attendant with you?" he asked, at last.

"He was in his closet."

"At his devotions too, perhaps?"

"The White Night of Siva is also the Black Night of Kali," said the
yogi, gravely, as one rebuking an unworthy levity.

"What do you mean by that?" Goldberger demanded.

"Mahbub is of the cult of Kali, who is the wife of Siva," said the
yogi, touching his forehead reverently as he spoke the words. "He
spent the night in adoration of her attributes."

Goldberger's stenographer was having his difficulties; the pencils of
the reporters were racing wildly in unison; everyone was listening
with strained attention; there was, somehow, a feeling in the air that
something was about to happen. I saw Godfrey write a line upon a sheet
of paper, fold it, and toss it on the table in front of Goldberger.
The coroner opened it, read the line, and stared at the impassive
Mahbub, who stood beside his master with folded arms, staring over the
heads of the crowd.

"In other words," said Goldberger, slowly, "your attendant is a Thug."

The yogi bowed.

"Yes," he said, calmly; "Mahbub is Thuggee."




CHAPTER XIV

THE FINGER-PRINTS


A shiver ran through the crowd, like a gust of wind across a field of
wheat. The words, "Mahbub is Thuggee," seemed to rend the veil which
obscured the tragedy. Surely it was clear enough, now: here was a man
killed by Thuggee's peculiar method, and here was the Thug. It was as
simple as two and two!

Every eye was on the bare-legged Hindu, impassive as ever, staring
straight before him. The camera-men hastily pushed in fresh plates and
trained their machines upon him. Two policemen edged close to his
side.

But Francisco Silva looked about him with scornful eyes, and presently
he opened his lips as though to speak, and then he closed them.

Goldberger seemed perplexed. He looked as though, while rolling
smoothly along the road toward a well-understood goal, he had suddenly
struck an unforeseen obstacle. The possibility of Mahbub's guilt
seemed to interfere with some theory of his own. He called Simmonds
and the district attorney to him, and they exchanged a few low words.
Then he turned back to the witness.

"I should like to question your attendant," he said. "Will you
translate for me? I have not been able to find a Hindu interpreter."

Silva bowed his consent.

"Ask him, please, where he spent Thursday night."

There was a brief interchange between Silva and Mahbub, then the
former turned to Goldberger.

"It was as I thought," he said. "He spent the night in the worship of
the attributes of Kali."

The coroner opened an envelope which lay on the table at his elbow and
took out a piece of knotted cord.

"Ask him if he ever saw this before," he said, and passed it to the
witness.

"I notice that it is stained," said Silva, looking at it. "Is it with
blood?"

"Yes."

"Then Mahbub will not touch it. For him to do so, would be to defile
himself."

"He doesn't need to touch it. Show it to him."

Silva spoke to his servant, holding up the cord. The latter glanced at
it and shook his head. Without a word, Silva handed the cord back to
the coroner.

"Are there any further questions?" he asked.

Goldberger pulled at his moustache impatiently.

"There are a lot of questions I'd like to ask," he said, "but I feel a
good deal as though I were questioning the Sphinx. Isn't it a little
queer that a Thug should be so particular about a few blood-stains?"

"I fear that you are doing Mahbub an injustice in your thoughts,"
Silva said, gravely. "You have heard certain tales of the Thugs,
perhaps--tales distorted and magnified and untrue. In the old days, as
worshippers of Kali, they did, sometimes, offer her a human sacrifice;
but that was long ago. To say a man is a Thug is not to say he is also
a murderer."

"It will take more than that to convict him, anyway," assented
Goldberger, quickly. "That is all for the present, professor." I bit
back a smile at the title which came so unconsciously from
Goldberger's lips.

Silva bowed and walked slowly away toward the house, Mahbub following
close behind. At a look from Simmonds, two of his men strolled after
the strange couple.

Goldberger stared musingly after them for a moment, then shook his
head impatiently, and turned back to the business in hand.

"Will Mr. Swain please take the stand?" he said; and Swain took the
chair. "Now, Mr. Swain," Goldberger began, after swearing him,
"please tell us, in your own way, of what part you had in the
incidents of Thursday night."

Swain told his story much as he had told it to Godfrey and me, and I
noticed how closely both Goldberger and the district attorney followed
it. When he had finished, Goldberger asked the same question that
Godfrey had asked.

"While you were having the altercation with Mr. Vaughan, did you grasp
hold of him?"

"No, sir; I did not touch him."

"You are quite sure?"

"Yes, sir."

"You didn't touch him at any time, then or afterwards?"

"No, sir. I didn't see him afterwards."

"What were your feelings when he took his daughter away?"

"I was profoundly grieved."

"And angry?"

"Yes, I suppose I was angry. He was most unjust to me."

"He had used very violent language to you, had he not?"

"Yes."

"He had threatened your life if you tried to see his daughter again?"

"Yes."

"Now, Mr. Swain, as you stood there, angry and humiliated, didn't you
make up your mind to follow him to the house and have it out with
him?"

Swain smiled.

"I'm lawyer enough to know," he said, "that a question like that isn't
permissible. But I'll answer it. I may have had such an impulse--I
don't know; but the sight of the cobra there in the arbour put it
effectually out of my head."

"You still think there was a cobra?"

"I am sure of it."

"And you ran out of the arbour so fast you bumped your head?"

"I suppose that's what happened. It's mighty sore, anyway," and Swain
put his hand to it ruefully.

"Mr. Swain," went on the coroner, slowly, "are you prepared to swear
that, after you hurt your head, you might not, in a confused and
half-dazed condition, have followed your previous impulse to go to the
house and see Mr. Vaughan?"

"Yes," answered Swain, emphatically, "I am. Although I was somewhat
dazed, I have a distinct recollection of going straight to the wall
and climbing back over it."

"You cut your wrist as you were crossing the wall the first time?"

[Illustration: "I'm lawyer enough to know," he said, "that a question
like that is not permissible"]

"Yes," and Swain held up his hand and showed the strip of plaster
across the wound.

"Your right wrist?"

"Yes."

"It bled freely, did it not?"

"Very freely."

"What became of the clothes you took off when you changed into those
brought by Mr. Godfrey?"

"I don't know. Mr. Lester told me they were left here. I intended to
inquire for them."

At a sign from Goldberger, Simmonds opened a suit-case and placed a
bundle on the table. Goldberger unrolled it and handed it to Swain.

"Are these the clothes?" he asked.

"Yes," said Swain, after a moment's examination.

"Will you hold the shirt up so the jury can see it?"

Swain held the garment up, and everybody's eyes were fixed upon the
blood-soaked sleeve.

"There seems to have been a good deal of blood," remarked Goldberger.
"It must have run down over your hand."

"It did. It was all over my fingers."

"So that it would probably stain anything you touched?"

"Yes, very probably."

"Did you think of that when you were in the arbour with Miss Vaughan?"

Swain's face suddenly crimsoned and he hung his head.

"I'm afraid not," he said.

"How was she dressed?"

"In a white robe of some silk-like material."

"A robe that would show a blood-stain?"

"Undoubtedly."

Goldberger paused for an instant, and then produced a pad, such as one
uses for inking rubber stamps, opened it and placed it on the table
before him.

"Have you any objection to giving me a set of your finger-prints?" he
asked.

"None whatever," and Swain stepped toward the table and placed the
tips of his fingers on the pad. Then he pressed each one carefully
upon the pad of paper which the coroner placed before him. Goldberger
watched him curiously, until all ten impressions had been made.

"You did that as though you had done it before," he remarked.

"I made a set once for Mr. Vaughan," said Swain, sitting down again.
"He had a most interesting collection."

Goldberger passed the prints over to the head of the Bureau of
Identification, then he turned back to the witness.

"Mr. Swain," he said, "have you ever seen this cord before?" and he
handed him the knotted cord.

Swain took it and examined it curiously, without hesitation or repugnance.

"No," he answered, finally, "I never saw it before."

"Do you know what it is?" and Goldberger watched him closely.

"I infer that it is the cord with which Mr. Vaughan was strangled."

"That is so. You did not see it around his neck?"

"I have no recollection of having done so."

"Please look at the cord again, Mr. Swain," said Goldberger, still
watching him. "You will see that it is knotted. Can you describe those
knots for me?"

Swain looked at the knots, and I was glad to see that his hands were
absolutely steady and his face free from fear. No murderer could
handle so unconcernedly the instrument of his crime! Surely the jury
would see that!

"The knots," said Swain, at last, "seem to be an ordinary square knot
with which the cord was made into a noose, and then a double bowline
to secure it."

"A double bowline? Can you tie such a knot?"

"Certainly. Anyone who has ever owned a boat can do so. It is the best
knot for this purpose."

The coroner reached out for the cord and replaced it in the envelope.
Then he produced the handkerchief.

"Can you identify this?" he asked, and handed it to the witness.

Swain changed colour a little as he took it.

"I cannot identify it," he said, in a low voice; "but I will say this:
when Miss Vaughan found that my wrist was bleeding, she insisted upon
tying her handkerchief around it. This may be the handkerchief."

Again a little shiver ran through the crowd, and Goldberger's eyes
were gleaming.

"You notice that two corners of the handkerchief are free from stain,"
he said, "and are crumpled as though they had been tied in a knot. The
handkerchief Miss Vaughan used would probably be in that condition,
would it not?"

"Yes," Swain answered, his voice still low.

"You heard Dr. Hinman testify that he found the handkerchief beside
the chair in which Mr. Vaughan was murdered?"

"Yes."

"Can you explain its presence there?"

"I cannot, unless it dropped from my wrist when I stooped to raise
Miss Vaughan."

Goldberger looked at the witness for a moment, then he glanced at
Sylvester, who nodded almost imperceptibly.

"That is all for the present, Mr. Swain," the coroner said, and Swain
sat down again beside me, very pale, but holding himself well in hand.

Then Simmonds took the stand. His story developed nothing new, but he
told of the finding of the body and of its appearance and manner of
death in a way which brought back the scene to me very vividly. I
suspected that he made his story deliberately impressive in order to
efface the good impression made by the previous witness.

Finally, the coroner dipped once more into the suit-case, brought out
another bundle and unrolled it. It proved to be a white robe with red
stains about the top. He handed it to Simmonds.

"Can you identify this?" he asked.

"Yes," said Simmonds; "it is the garment worn by Mr. Vaughan at the
time of his murder."

"How do you identify it?"

"By my initials in indelible ink, on the right sleeve, where I placed
them."

"There are stains on the collar of the robe. What are they?"

"Blood-stains."

"Human blood?"

"Yes, sir."

"How do you know?"

"I have had them tested."

"Did any blood come from the corpse?"

"No, sir; the skin of the neck was not broken."

"Where, then, in your opinion, did this blood come from?"

"From the murderer," answered Simmonds, quietly.

There was a sudden gasp from the reporters, as they saw whither this
testimony was tending. I glanced at Swain. He was a little paler, but
was smiling confidently.

Goldberger, his face hawklike, stooped again to the suit-case,
produced a third bundle, and, unrolling it, disclosed another robe,
also of white silk. This, too, he handed to Simmonds.

"Can you identify that?" he asked.

"Yes," said Simmonds. "It is the robe worn by Miss Vaughan on the
night of the tragedy. My initials are on the left sleeve."

"That also has blood-marks on it, I believe?"

"Yes, sir;" and, indeed, we could all perceive the marks.

"Human blood?"

"Yes, sir. I had it tested, too."

"That is all," said Goldberger, quickly, and placed on the stand the
head of the Identification Bureau.

"Mr. Sylvester," he began, "you have examined the marks on these
garments?"

"Yes, sir."

"What did you make of them?"

"They are all unquestionably finger-marks, but most of them are mere
smudges. However, the fabric of which these robes are made is a very
hard and finely-meshed silk, with an unusually smooth surface, and I
succeeded in discovering a few marks on which the lines were
sufficiently distinct for purposes of identification. These I have
photographed. The lines are much plainer in the photographs than on
the cloth."

"Have you the photographs with you?"

"I have," and Sylvester produced them from a pocket. "These are the
prints on the robe belonging to the murdered man," he added, passing
four cards to the coroner. "You will notice that two of them show the
right thumb, though one is not very distinct; another shows the right
fore-finger, and the fourth the right middle-finger."

"You consider these plain enough for purposes of identification?"

"Undoubtedly. Any one of them would be enough."

Goldberger passed the photographs to the foreman of the jury, who
looked at them vacantly.

"And the other photographs?" he asked.

"I got only two prints from the other robe," said Sylvester. "All but
these were hopelessly smudged, as though the hand had moved while
touching the garment."

"You mean they were all made by one hand?" asked Goldberger.

"Yes, sir; by the right hand. Again I have a print of the thumb and
one of the third finger."

He passed the photographs over, and again Goldberger handed them on to
the jury.

"Mr. Sylvester," said the coroner, "you consider the finger-print
method of identification a positive one, do you not?"

"Absolutely so."

"Even with a single finger?"

"Perhaps with a single finger there may be some doubt, if there is no
other evidence. Somebody has computed that the chance of two prints
being exactly the same is one in sixty-four millions."

"And where there is other evidence?"

"I should say that a single finger was enough."

"Suppose you have two fingers?"

"Then it is absolutely certain."

"And three fingers?"

Sylvester shrugged his shoulders to indicate that proof could go no
further. Goldberger took back the photographs from the foreman of the
jury and ranged them before him on the table.

"Now, Mr. Sylvester," he said, "did you notice any correspondence
between these prints?"

"Yes," answered the witness, in a low voice; "the thumb-prints on both
robes were made by the same hand."

The audience sat spell-bound, staring, scarce breathing. I dared not
glance at Swain. I could not take my eyes from that pale-faced man on
the witness-stand, who knew that with every word he was riveting an
awful crime to a living fellow-being.

"One question more," said Goldberger. "Have you any way of telling by
whom these prints were made?"

"Yes," said Sylvester again, and his voice was so low I could scarcely
hear it. "They were made by Frederic Swain. The prints he made just
now correspond with them in every detail!"




CHAPTER XV

THE CHAIN TIGHTENS


An instant's silence followed Sylvester's words, and then a little
murmur of interest and excitement, as the reporters bent closer above
their work. I heard a quick, deep intaking of the breath from the man
who sat beside me, and then I was on my feet.

"Your Honour," I said to Goldberger, "it seems that an effort is to be
made to incriminate Mr. Swain in this affair, and he should therefore
be represented by counsel. I myself intend to represent him, and I ask
for an hour's adjournment in order to consult with my client."

Goldberger glanced at his watch.

"I intended to adjourn for lunch," he said, "as soon as I had finished
with Mr. Sylvester. We will adjourn now, if you wish--until
one-thirty," he added.

The battery of cameras was clicking at Swain, and two or three artists
were making sketches of his head; there was a great bustle as the
reporters gathered up their papers and hurried to their cars to search
for the nearest telephone; the jury walked heavily away in charge of
an officer to get their lunch at some near-by road-house; Sylvester
was gathering up his prints and photographs and putting them carefully
in his pocket; Simmonds was replacing the blood-stained clothing in
the suit-case, to be held as evidence for the trial; but Swain sat
there, with arms folded, staring straight before him, apparently
unconscious of all this.

Goldberger looked at him closely, as he came down to speak to me, but
Swain did not glance up.

"I can parole him in your custody, I suppose, Mr. Lester?" the coroner
asked.

"Yes; certainly," I assented.

"Sylvester's evidence makes it look bad for him."

"Will you introduce me to Sylvester? I should like to go over the
prints with him."

"Certainly;" and, a moment later, with the prints spread out before
us, Sylvester was showing me their points of similarity.

Godfrey came forward while he was talking and stood looking over his
shoulder.

I had heard of finger-print identification, of course, many times, but
had made no study of the subject, and, I confess, the blurred
photographs which Sylvester offered for my inspection seemed to me
mighty poor evidence upon which to accuse a man of murder. The
photographs showed the prints considerably larger than life-size, but
this enlargement had also exaggerated the threads of the cloth, so
that the prints seemed half-concealed by a heavy mesh. To the naked
eye, the lines were almost indistinguishable, but under Sylvester's
powerful glass they came out more clearly.

"The thumb," said Sylvester, following the lines first to the right
and then to the left with the point of a pencil, "is what we call a
double whorl. It consists of fourteen lines, or ridges. With the
micrometer," and he raised the lid of a little leather box which stood
on the table, took out an instrument of polished steel and applied it
to one of the photographs, "we get the angle of these ridges. See how
I adjust it," and I watched him, as, with a delicate thumbscrew, he
made the needle-like points of the finder coincide with the outside
lines of the whorl. "Now here is a photograph from the other robe,
also showing the thumb," and he applied the machine carefully to it.
"It also is a double whorl of fourteen lines, and you see the angles
are the same. And here is the print of the right thumb which your
client made for me." He applied the micrometer and drew back that I
might see for myself.

"But these photographs are enlarged," I objected.

"That makes no difference. Enlargement does not alter the angles.
Here are the other prints."

He compared them one by one, in the same manner. When he had finished,
there was no escaping the conviction that they had been made by the
same hand--that is, unless one denied the theory of finger-print
identification altogether, and that, I knew, would be absurd. As he
finished his demonstration, Sylvester glanced over my shoulder with a
little deprecating smile, as of a man apologising for doing an
unpleasant duty, and I turned to find Swain standing there, his face
lined with perplexity.

"You heard?" I asked.

"Yes; and I believe Mr. Sylvester is right. I can't understand it."

"Well," I said, "suppose we go and have some lunch, and then we can
talk it over," and thanking Sylvester for his courtesy, I led Swain
away. Godfrey fell into step beside us, and for some moments we walked
on in silence.

"There is only one explanation that I can see," said Godfrey, at last.
"Swain, you remember, got to the library about a minute ahead of us,
and when we reached the door he was lifting Miss Vaughan to the couch.
In that minute, he must have touched the dead man."

Swain shook his head doubtfully.

"I don't see why I should have done that," he said.

"It isn't a question of why you did it," Godfrey pointed out. "It's a
question of whether you did it. Go over the scene in your mind,
recalling as many details as you can, and then we'll go over it
together, step by step, after lunch."

It was a silent meal, and when it was over, Godfrey led the way into
his study.

"Now," he began, when we were seated, "where was Miss Vaughan at the
moment you sprang through the door?"

"She was lying on the floor by the table, in front of her father's
chair," Swain replied.

"You are sure of that?"

"Yes; I didn't see her until I ran around the table."

"I was hoping," said Godfrey, "that she had fainted with her arms
clasped about her father's neck, and that, in freeing them, you made
those marks on his robe."

But Swain shook his head.

"No," he said; "I'm positive I didn't touch him."

"Then how did the marks get there?"

"I don't know," said Swain helplessly.

"Now, see here, Swain," said Godfrey, a little sternly, "there is only
one way in which those finger-prints could have got on that garment,
and that is from your fingers. If you didn't put them there
consciously, you must have done so unconsciously. If they aren't
explained in some way, the jury will very probably hold you
responsible for the crime."

"I understand that," Swain answered thickly; "but how can they be
explained? I don't see why I should put my hands on Mr. Vaughan's
throat, even unconsciously. And then there's the fact that at no time
during the evening was I really unconscious--I was only confused and
dazed."

"Goldberger's theory is plain enough," said Godfrey, turning to me;
"and I must say that it's a good one. He realises that there wasn't
provocation enough to cause a man like Swain to commit murder, with
all his senses about him; but his presumption is that the crime was
committed while Swain was in a dazed condition and not wholly
self-controlled. Such a thing is possible."

"No, it isn't!" cried Swain, his face livid. "It isn't possible! I'm
not a murderer. I remember everything else--do you think I wouldn't
remember a thing like that!"

"I don't know what to think," Godfrey admitted, a straight line
between his brows. "Besides, there's the handkerchief."

"I don't see any mystery about that," said Swain. "There's only one
way that could have come there. It dropped from my wrist when I
stooped over Miss Vaughan."

Godfrey looked at me, and I nodded. Swain might as well know the
worst.

"That would be an explanation, sure enough," said Godfrey, slowly,
"but for one fact--you didn't have any bandage on your wrist when you
came back over the wall. Both Lester and I saw your wrist and the cut
on it distinctly. Therefore, if you dropped the handkerchief there, it
must have been before that."

The blood had run from Swain's cheeks, as though drained by an open
artery, and for a moment he sat silent, staring at the speaker. Then
he raised his trembling right hand and looked at it, as though it
might bear some mark to tell him whether it were indeed guilty.

"But--but I don't understand!" he cried thickly. "You--you don't mean
to intimate--you don't believe--but I wasn't unconscious, I tell you!
I wasn't near the house until after we heard the screams! I'm sure of
it! I'd stake my soul on it!"

"Get a grip of yourself, Swain," said Godfrey, soothingly. "Don't let
yourself go like that. No, I don't believe you killed Worthington
Vaughan, consciously or unconsciously. I said Goldberger's theory was
a good one, and it is; but I don't believe it. My belief is that the
murder was done by the Thug; but there's nothing to support it, except
the fact that he was on the ground and that a noose was used. There's
not a bit of direct evidence to connect him with the crime, and
there's a lot of direct evidence to connect you with it. It's up to us
to explain it away. Now, think carefully before you answer my
questions: Have you any recollection, however faint, of having seen
Mahbub before this morning?"

Swain sat for quite a minute searching his consciousness. Then, to my
great disappointment, he shook his head.

"No," he said; "I am sure I never saw him before."

"Nor Silva?"

"No, nor Silva--except, of course, the time, three or four months ago,
when he gave me Mr. Vaughan's message."

"Have you a distinct recollection that the library was empty when you
sprang into it?"

"Yes; very distinct. I remember looking about it, and then running
past the table and discovering Miss Vaughan."

"You saw her father also?"

"Yes; but I merely glanced at him. I realised that he was dead."

"And you also have a distinct recollection that you did not approach
him or touch him?"

"I am quite certain of that," answered Swain, positively.

"Then I give it up," said Godfrey, and lay back in his chair.

There was a queer boiling of ideas in my mind; ideas difficult to
clothe with words, and composed of I know not what farrago of
occultism, mysticism, and Oriental magic; but at last I managed to
simmer them down to a timid question:

"I know it sounds foolish, but wouldn't it be possible, Godfrey, to
explain all this by hypnosis, or occult influence, or something of
that sort?"

Godfrey turned and looked at me.

"Silva seems to have impressed you," he said.

"He has. But isn't such an explanation possible?"

"I don't think so. I don't deny that the Orientals have gone farther
along certain paths of psychology than we have, but as to their
possessing any occult power, it is, in my opinion, all bosh. As for
hypnosis, the best authorities agree that no man can be hypnotised to
do a thing which, in his normal condition, would be profoundly
repugnant to him. Indeed, few men can be hypnotised against their
will. To be hypnotised, you have to yield yourself. Of course, the
more you yield yourself, the weaker you grow, but that doesn't apply
to Swain. I shouldn't advise you to use that line of argument to a
jury," he added, with a smile. "You'd better just leave the whole
thing up in the air."

"Well," I said, "I'll make the best fight I can. I was hoping Swain
could help me; since he can't, we'll have to trust to luck."

Godfrey left us to get his story of the morning hearing into shape,
and I fell into a gloomy revery. I could see no way out of the maze;
either Swain had touched Vaughan's body, or it had been touched by
another man with the same finger-markings. I sat suddenly upright, for
if there was such a man, he must be one of two....

"What is it?" Swain asked, looking at me.

"A long shot," I said. "An exceedingly long shot--a
three-hundred-million to one shot. How many people are there in the
world, Swain?"

"I'm sure I don't know," and he stared at me in bewilderment.

"I think it's something like a billion and a half. If that is true,
then it's possible that there are four people in the world, beside
yourself, with the thumb and two fingers of the right hand marked
exactly as yours are."

"We must have a reunion, some day," Swain remarked, with irony.

But I refused to be diverted.

"Allowing for imperceptible differences," I went on, "I think it is
safe to assume that there are ten such people."

"Well," said Swain, bitterly, "I know one thing that it _isn't_ safe
to assume, and that is that either of those Hindus is one of those
ten. I suppose that is the assumption you will make next?"

"It's an assumption I intend to put to the proof, anyway," I answered,
somewhat testily, "and if it fails, I'm afraid you'll have to go to
jail till I can dig up some more evidence."

He turned toward me quickly, his face working.

"See here, Mr. Lester," he said, "don't misunderstand me. I'm awfully
grateful for all you're doing for me; but I don't mind going to
jail--not on my own account. I'm innocent, and I'll be able to prove
it in time. But Marjorie mustn't be left alone. I'd be ready to face
anything if I knew that she was safe. She mustn't be left in that
house--not a single night. Promise me that you'll take her with you as
soon as the inquest's over!"

"I'll promise that, Swain, gladly," I said, "provided, of course, the
doctor consents."

"We must get him," and Swain sprang to his feet. "We must explain to
him how important it is."

"Perhaps I can get him on the 'phone," I said; but the person who
answered told me that he had already started for the inquest. And, a
moment later, Mrs. Hargis tapped at the door of the study and said
that the doctor was outside. I told her to show him in at once.

"The truth is," said Hinman, shaking hands with both of us, "I thought
I'd drop in to find out if th

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