by M. R. James
My friend opened the little box, and found in it a thin gold chain with an object attached to it. He glanced at the object and then took off his spectacles to examine it more narrowly. “What’s the history of this?” he asked.
“Odd enough,” was the answer. “You know the yew thicket in the shrubbery: well, a year or two back we were cleaning out the old well that used to be in the clearing here, and what do you suppose we found?”
“Is it possible that you found a body?” said the visitor, with an odd feeling of nervousness.
“We did that. But what’s more, in every sense of the word, we found two.”
“Good Heavens! Two? Was there anything to show how they got there? Was this thing found with them?”
“It was. Amongst the rags of the clothes that were on one of the bodies. A bad business, whatever the story of it may have been. One body had the arms tight around the other. They must have been there thirty years or more—long enough before we came to this place. You may judge we filled the well up fast enough. Do you make anything of what’s cut on that gold coin you have there?”
“I think I can,” said my friend, holding it to the light (but he read it without much difficulty). “It seems to be G.W.S., July 24, 1865.”
The Tractate Middoth
TOWARDS THE END of an autumn afternoon an elderly man with a thin face and gray Piccadilly weepers pushed open the swing-door leading into the vestibule of a certain famous library, and addressing himself to an attendant, stated that he believed he was entitled to use the library, and inquired if he might take a book out.
Yes, if he were on the list of those to whom that privilege was given. He produced his card—Mr. John Eldred—and, the register being consulted, a favorable answer was given.
“Now, another point,” said he. “It is a long time since I was here, and I do not know my way about your building. Besides, it is near closing-time, and it is bad for me to hurry up and down stairs. I have here the title of the book I want: is there anyone at liberty who could go and find it for me?”
After a moment’s thought the doorkeeper beckoned to a young man who was passing. “Mr. Garrett,” he said, “have you a minute to assist this gentleman?”
“With pleasure,” was Mr. Garrett’s answer. The slip with the title was handed to him. “I think I can put my hand on this; it happens to be in the class I inspected last quarter, but I’ll just look it up in the catalog to make sure. I suppose it is that particular edition that you require, sir?”
“Yes, if you please; that, and no other,” said Mr. Eldred. “I am exceedingly obliged to you.”
“Don’t mention it I beg, sir,” said Mr. Garrett, and hurried off. “I thought so,” he said to himself, when his finger, traveling down the pages of the catalog, stopped at a particular entry. “Talmud: Tractate Middoth, with the commentary of Nachmanides, Amsterdam, 1707. 11.3.34. Hebrew class, of course. Not a very difficult job this.”
Mr. Eldred, accommodated with a chair in the vestibule, awaited anxiously the return of his messenger—and his disappointment at seeing an empty-handed Mr. Garrett running down the staircase was very evident.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, sir,” said the young man, “but the book is out.”
“Oh dear!” said Mr. Eldred, “is that so? You are sure there can be no mistake?”
“I don’t think there is much chance of it, sir: but it’s possible, if you like to wait a minute, that you might meet the very gentleman that’s got it. He must be leaving the library soon, and I think I saw him take that particular book out of the shelf.”
“Indeed! You didn’t recognize him, I suppose? Would it be one of the professors or one of the students?”
“I don’t think so: certainly not a professor. I should have known him; but the light isn’t very good in that part of the library at this time of day, and I didn’t see his face. I should have said he was a shortish old gentleman, perhaps a clergyman, in a cloak. If you could wait, I can easily find out whether he wants the book very particularly.”
“No, no,” said Mr. Eldred, “I won’t—I can’t wait now, thank you—no. I must be off. But I’ll call again tomorrow if I may, and perhaps you could find out who has it.”
“Certainly, sir, and I’ll have the book ready for you if we—”
But Mr. Eldred was already off, and hurrying more than one would have thought wholesome for him.
Garrett had a few moments to spare; and, thought he, “I’ll go back to that case and see if I can find the old man. Most likely he could put off using the book for a few days. I dare say the other one doesn’t want to keep it for long.” So off with him to the Hebrew class.
But when he got there it was unoccupied, and the volume marked 11.3.34 was in its place on the shelf. It was vexatious to Garrett’s self-respect to have disappointed an inquirer with so little reason. And he would have liked, had it not been against library rules, to take the book down to the vestibule then and there, so that it might be ready for Mr. Eldred when he called. However, next morning he would be on the look-out for him, and he begged the doorkeeper to send and let him know when the moment came.
As a matter of fact, he was himself in the vestibule when Mr. Eldred arrived, very soon after the library opened and when hardly anyone besides the staff were in the building.
“I’m very sorry,” he said; “it’s not often that I make such a stupid mistake, but I did feel sure that the old gentleman I saw took out that very book and kept it in his hand without opening it, just as people do, you know, sir, when they mean to take a book out of the library and not merely refer to it. But, however, I’ll run up now at once and get it for you this time.”
And here intervened a pause. Mr. Eldred paced the entry, read all the notices, consulted his watch, sat and gazed up the staircase, did all that a very impatient man could, until some twenty minutes had run out. At last he addressed himself to the doorkeeper and inquired if it was a very long way to that part of the library to which Mr. Garrett had gone.
“Well, I was thinking it was funny, sir: he’s a quick man as a rule, but to be sure he might have been sent for by the librarian, but even so I think he’d have mentioned to him that you was waiting. I’ll just speak him up on the toob and see.”
And to the tube he addressed himself. As he absorbed the reply to his question his face changed, and he made one or two supplementary inquiries which were shortly answered. Then he came forward to his counter and spoke in a lower tone.
“I’m sorry to hear, sir, that something seems to have ’appened a little awkward. Mr. Garrett has been took poorly, it appears, and the librarian sent him ’ome in a cab the other way. Something of an attack, by what I can hear.”
“What, really? Do you mean that someone has injured him?”
“No, sir, not violence ’ere, but, as I should judge, attacked with an attack, what you might term it, of illness. Not a strong constitootion, Mr. Garrett. But as to your book, sir, perhaps you might be able to find it for yourself. It’s too bad you should be disappointed this way twice over—”
“Er—well, but I’m so sorry that Mr. Garrett should have been taken ill in this way while he was obliging me. I think I must leave the book, and call and inquire after him. You can give me his address, I suppose.”
That was easily done. Mr. Garrett, it appeared, lodged in rooms not far from the station.
“And one other question. Did you happen to notice if an old gentleman, perhaps a clergyman, in a—yes—in a black cloak, left the library after I did yesterday? I think he may have been a—I think, that is, that he may be staying—or rather that I may have known him.”
“Not in a black cloak, sir. No. There were only two gentlemen left later than what you done, sir, both of them youngish men. There was Mr. Carter took out a music-book and one of the prefessors with a couple o’ novels. That’s the lot, sir; and then I went off to me tea, and glad to get it. Thank you, sir, much obliged.”
Mr. Eldred, still a prey to anxiety, be
took himself in a cab to Mr. Garrett’s address, but the young man was not yet in a condition to receive visitors. He was better, but his landlady considered that he must have had a severe shock. She thought most likely from what the doctor said that he would be able to see Mr. Eldred tomorrow.
Mr. Eldred returned to his hotel at dusk and spent, I fear, but a dull evening.
On the next day he was able to see Mr. Garrett. When in health Mr. Garrett was a cheerful and pleasant-looking young man. Now he was a very white and shaky being, propped up in an armchair by the fire, and inclined to shiver and keep an eye on the door. If, however, there were visitors whom he was not prepared to welcome, Mr. Eldred was not among them.
“It really is I who owe you an apology, and I was despairing of being able to pay it, for I didn’t know your address. But I am very glad you have called. I do dislike and regret giving all this trouble, but you know I could not have foreseen this—this attack which I had.”
“Of course not; but now, I am something of a doctor. You’ll excuse my asking; you have had, I am sure, good advice. Was it a fall you had?”
“No. I did fall on the floor—but not from any height. It was, really, a shock.”
“You mean something startled you. Was it anything you thought you saw?”
“Not much thinking in the case, I’m afraid. Yes, it was something I saw. You remember when you called the first time at the library?”
“Yes, of course. Well, now, let me beg you not to try to describe it—it will not be good for you to recall it, I’m sure.”
“But indeed it would be a relief to me to tell anyone like yourself: you might be able to explain it away. It was just when I was going into the class where your book is—”
“Indeed, Mr. Garrett, I insist. Besides, my watch tells me I have but very little time left in which to get my things together and take the train. No—not another word—it would be more distressing to you than you imagine, perhaps.
“Now there is just one thing I want to say. I feel that I am really indirectly responsible for this illness of yours, and I think I ought to defray the expense which it has—eh?”
But this offer was quite distinctly declined. Mr. Eldred, not pressing it, left almost at once. Not, however, before Mr. Garrett had insisted upon his taking a note of the class-mark of the Tractate Middoth, which, as he said, Mr. Eldred could at leisure get for himself.
But Mr. Eldred did not reappear at the library.
William Garrett had another visitor that day in the person of a contemporary and colleague from the library, one George Earle.
Earle had been one of those who found Garrett lying insensible on the floor just inside the “class” or cubicle (opening upon the central alley of a spacious gallery) in which the Hebrew books were placed, and Earle had naturally been very anxious about his friend’s condition. So as soon as library hours were over he appeared at the lodgings.
“Well,” he said (after other conversation), “I’ve no notion what it was that put you wrong, but I’ve got the idea that there’s something wrong in the atmosphere of the library.
“I know this, that just before we found you I was coming along the gallery with Davis, and I said to him, ‘Did ever you know such a musty smell anywhere as there is about here? It can’t be wholesome.’ Well now, if one goes on living a long time with a smell of that kind (I tell you it was worse than I ever knew it) it must get into the system and break out sometime, don’t you think?”
Garrett shook his head. “That’s all very well about the smell—but it isn’t always there, though I’ve noticed it the last day or two—a sort of unnaturally strong smell of dust. But no—that’s not what did for me. It was something I saw. And I want to tell you about it.
“I went into that Hebrew class to get a book for a man that was inquiring for it down below. Now that same book I’d made a mistake about the day before. I’d been for it, for the same man, and made sure that I saw an old parson in a cloak taking it out.
“I told my man it was out. Off he went, to call again next day. I went back to see if I could get it out of the parson: no parson there, and the book on the shelf.
“Well, yesterday, as I say, I went again. This time, if you please—ten o’clock in the morning, remember, and as much light as ever you get in those classes, and there was my parson again, back to me, looking at the books on the shelf I wanted. His hat was on the table, and he had a bald head. I waited a second or two looking at him rather particularly.
“I tell you, he had a very nasty bald head. It looked to me dry, and it looked dusty, and the streaks of hair across it were much less like hair than cobwebs. Well, I made a bit of a noise on purpose, coughed and moved my feet. He turned around and let me see his face—which I hadn’t seen before. I tell you again, I’m not mistaken.
“Though, for one reason or another I didn’t take in the lower part of his face, I did see the upper part; and it was perfectly dry, and the eyes were very deep-sunk. And over them, from the eyebrows to the cheek-bone, there were cobwebs—thick.
“Now that closed me up, as they say, and I can’t tell you anything more.”
What explanations were furnished by Earle of this phenomenon it does not very much concern us to inquire. At all events they did not convince Garrett that he had not seen what he had seen.
Before William Garrett returned to work at the library, the librarian insisted upon his taking a week’s rest and change of air. Within a few days’ time, therefore, he was at the station with his bag, looking for a desirable smoking compartment in which to travel to Burnstow-on-Sea, which he had not previously visited.
One compartment and one only seemed to be suitable. But, just as he approached it, he saw, standing in front of the door, a figure so like one bound up with recent unpleasant associations that, with a sickening qualm, and hardly knowing what he did, he tore open the door of the next compartment and pulled himself into it as quickly as if death were at his heels.
The train moved off, and he must have turned quite faint, for he was next conscious of a smelling-bottle being put to his nose. His physician was a nice-looking old lady, who, with her daughter, was the only passenger in the carriage.
But for this incident it is not very likely that he would have made any overtures to his fellow travelers. As it was, thanks and inquiries and general conversation supervened inevitably, and Garrett found himself provided before the journey’s end not only with a physician, but with a landlady: for Mrs. Simpson had apartments to let at Burnstow, which seemed in all ways suitable.
The place was empty at that season, so that Garrett was thrown a good deal into the society of the mother and daughter. He found them very acceptable company. On the third evening of his stay he was on such terms with them as to be asked to spend the evening in their private sitting room.
During their talk it transpired that Garrett’s work lay in a library.
“Ah, libraries are fine places,” said Mrs. Simpson, putting down her work with a sigh. “But for all that, books have played me a sad turn, or rather a book has.”
“Well, books give me my living, Mrs. Simpson, and I should be sorry to say a word against them: I don’t like to hear that they have been bad for you.”
“Perhaps Mr. Garrett could help us to solve our puzzle, mother,” said Miss Simpson.
“I don’t want to set Mr. Garrett off on a hunt that might waste a lifetime, my dear, nor yet to trouble him with our private affairs.”
“But if you think it in the least likely that I could be of use, I do beg you to tell me what the puzzle is, Mrs. Simpson. If it is finding out anything about a book, you see, I am in rather a good position to do it.”
“Yes, I do see that, but the worst of it is that we don’t know the name of the book.”
“Nor what it is about?”
“No, nor that either.”
“Except that we don’t think it’s in English, mother—and that is not much of a clue.”
“Well, Mr. Garrett,” sa
id Mrs. Simpson, who had not yet resumed her work, and was looking at the fire thoughtfully, “I shall tell you the story. You will please keep it to yourself, if you don’t mind? Thank you.
“Now it is just this. I had an old uncle, a Dr. Rant. Perhaps you may have heard of him? Not that he was a distinguished man, but from the odd way he chose to be buried.”
“I rather think I have seen the name in some guidebook.”
“That would be it,” said Miss Simpson. “He left directions—horrid old man!—that he was to be put, sitting at a table in his ordinary clothes, in a brick room that he’d had made underground in a field near his house. Of course the country people say he’s been seen about there in his old black cloak.”
“Well, dear, I don’t know much about such things,” Mrs. Simpson went on, ‘but anyhow he is dead, these twenty years and more. He was a clergyman, though I’m sure I can’t imagine how he got to be one. But he did no duty for the last part of his life, which I think was a good thing.
“And he lived on his own property: a very nice estate not a great way from here. He had no wife or family; only one niece, who was myself, and one nephew, and he had no particular liking for either of us—nor for anyone else, as far as that goes. If anything, he liked my cousin better than he did me—for John was much more like him in his temper, and, I’m afraid I must say, his very mean sharp ways. It might have been different if I had not married; but I did, and that he very much resented.
“Very well: here he was with this estate and a good deal of money, as it turned out, of which he had the absolute disposal, and it was understood that we—my cousin and I—would share it equally at his death.
“In a certain winter, over twenty years back, as I said, he was taken ill, and I was sent for to nurse him. My husband was alive then, but the old man would not hear of his coming. As I drove up to the house I saw my cousin John driving away from it in an open fly and looking, I noticed, in very good spirits. I went up and did what I could for my uncle, but I was very soon sure that this would be his last illness; and he was convinced of it too.