«The door is not locked,» said the owner. «You will find some chairs and a table in the sitting-room on the left of the hall. I had a fire lit there, and there is a bucketful of coals. You will be pretty comfortable, I hope. You won't blame me for not coming in, but my nerves are not so good as they were.» With a few apologetic words, the owner slipped away, and they were alone with their task.
Lord Roxton had brought a strong electric torch. On opening the mildewed door, he flashed a tunnel of light down the passage, uncarpeted and dreary, which ended in a broad, straight, wooden staircase leading to the upper floor. There were doors on either side of the passage. That on the right led into a large, cheerless, empty room, with a derelict lawn-mower in one corner and a pile of old books and journals. There was a corresponding room upon the left which was a much more cheery apartment. A brisk fire burned in the grate, there were three comfortable chairs, and a deal table with a water carafe, a bucket of coals, and a few other amenities. It was lit by a large oil-lamp. The clergyman and Malone drew up to the fire, for it was very cold, but Lord Roxton completed his preparations. From a little hand-bag he extracted his automatic pistol, which he put upon the mantelpiece. Then he produced a packet of candles, placing two of them in the hall. Finally he took a ball of worsted and tied strings of it across the back passage and across the opposite door.
«We will have one look round,» said he, when his preparations were complete. «Then we can wait down here and take what comes.»
The upper passage led at right angles to left and right from the top of the straight staircase. On the right were two large, bare, dusty rooms, with the wallpaper hanging in strips and the floor littered with scattered plaster. On the left was a single large room in the same derelict condition. Out of it was the bathroom of tragic memory, with the high, zinc bath still in position. Great blotches of red lay within it, and though they were only rust stains, they seemed to be terrible reminders from the past. Malone was surprised to see the clergyman stagger and support himself against the door. His face was ghastly white and there was moisture on his brow. His two comrades supported him down the stairs, and he sat for a little, as one exhausted, before he spoke.
«Did you two really feel nothing?» he asked. «The fact is that I am mediumistic myself and very open to psychic impressions. This particular one was horrible beyond description.»
«What did you get, padre?»
«It is difficult to describe these things. It was a sinking of my heart, a feeling of utter desolation. All my senses were affected. My eyes went dim. I smelt a terrible odour of putrescence. The strength seemed to be sapped out of me. Believe me, Lord Roxton, it is no light thing which we are facing to-night.»
The sportsman was unusually grave. «So I begin to think,» said he. «Do you think you are fit for the job?»
«I am sorry to have been so weak,» Mr. Mason answered. «I shall certainly see the thing through. The worse the case, the more need for my help. I am all right now,» he added, with his cheery laugh, drawing an old charred briar from his pocket. «This is the best doctor for shaken nerves. I'll sit here and smoke till I'm wanted.»
«What shape do you expect it to take?» asked Malone of Lord Roxton.
«Well, it is something you can see. That's certain.»
«That's what I cannot understand, in spite of all my reading,» said Malone. «These authorities are all agreed that there is a material basis, and that this material basis is drawn from the human body. Call it ectoplasm, or what you like, it is human in origin, is it not?»
«Certainly,» Mason answered.
«Well, then, are we to suppose that this Dr. Tremayne builds up his own appearance by drawing stuff from me and you?»
«I think, so far as I understand it, that in most cases a spirit does so. I believe that when the spectator feels that he goes cold, that his hair rises and the rest of it, he is really conscious of this draft upon his own vitality which may be enough to make him faint or even to kill him. Perhaps he was drawing on me then.»
«Suppose we are not mediumistic? Suppose we give out nothing?»
«There is a very full case that I read lately,» Mr. Mason answered. «It was closely observed – reported by Professor Neillson of Iceland. In that case the evil spirit used to go down to an unfortunate photographer in the town, draw his supplies from him, and then come back and use them. He would openly say, 'Give me time to get down to So-and-so. Then I will show you what I can do'. He was a most formidable creature and they had great difficulty in mastering him.»
«Strikes me, young fellah, we have taken on a larger contract than we knew,» said Lord Roxton. «Well, we've done what we could. The passage is well lit. No one can come at us except down the stair without breaking the worsted. There is nothing more we can do except just to wait.»
So they waited. It was a weary time. A carriage clock had been placed on the discoloured wooden mantelpiece, and slowly its hands crept on from one to two and from two to three. Outside an owl was hooting most dismally in the darkness. The villa was on a by-road, and there was no human sound to link them up with life. The padre lay dozing in his chair. Malone smoked incessantly. Lord Roxton turned over the pages of a magazine. There were the occasional strange tappings and creakings which come in the silence of the night. Nothing else until . . .
Someone came down the stair.
There could not be a doubt of it. It was a furtive, and yet a clear footstep. Creak! Creak! Creak! Then it had reached the level. Then it had reached their door. They were all sitting erect in their chairs, Roxton grasping his automatic. Had it come in? The door was ajar, but had not further opened. Yet all were aware of a sense that they were not alone, that they were being observed. It seemed suddenly colder, and Malone was shivering. An instant later the steps were retreating. They were low and swift – much swifter than before. One could imagine that a messenger was speeding back with intelligence to some great master who lurked in the shadows above.
The three sat in silence, looking at each other.
«By Jove!» said Lord Roxton at last. His face was pale but firm. Malone scribbled some notes and the hour. The clergyman was praying.
«Well, we are up against it,» said Roxton after a pause. «We can't leave it at that. We have to go through with it. I don't mind tellin' you, padre, that I've followed a wounded tiger in thick jungle and never had quite the feelin' I've got now. If I'm out for sensations, I've got them. But I'm going upstairs.»
«We will go, too,» cried his comrades, rising from their chairs.
«Stay here, young fellah! And you, too, padre. Three of us make too much noise. I'll call you if I want you. My idea is just to steal out and wait quiet on the stair. If that thing, whatever it was, comes again, it will have to pass me.»
All three went into the passage. The two candles were throwing out little circles of light, and the stair was deeply illuminated, with heavy shadows at the top. Roxton sat down half-way up the stair, pistol in hand. He put his finger to his lips and impatiently waved his companions back to the room. Then they sat by the fire, waiting, waiting.
Half an hour, three-quarters – and then, suddenly it came. There was a sound as of rushing feet, the reverberation of a shot, a scuffle and a heavy fall, with a loud cry for help. Shaking with horror, they rushed into the hall. Lord Roxton was lying on his face amid a litter of plaster and rubbish. He seemed half dazed as they raised him, and was bleeding where the skin had been grazed from his cheek and hands. Looking up the stair, it seemed that the shadows were blacker and thicker at the top.
«I'm all right,» said Roxton, as they led him to his chair. «Just give me a minute to get my wind and I'll have another round with the devil – for if this is not the devil, then none ever walked the earth.»
«You shan't go alone this time,» said Malone.
«You never should,» added the clergyman. «But tell us what happened.»
«I hardly know myself. I sat, as you saw, with my back to the top landing. Suddenly I heard
a rush. I was aware of something dark right on the top of me. I half-turned and fired. The next instant I was chucked down as if I had been a baby. All that plaster came showering down after me. That's as much as I can tell you.»
«Why should we go further in the matter?» said Malone. «You are convinced that this is more than human, are you not?»
«There is no doubt of that.»
«Well, then, you have had your experience. What more can you want?»
«Well, I, at least, want something more,» said Mr. Mason. «I think our help is needed.»
«Strikes me that we shall need the help,» said Lord Roxton, rubbing his knee. «We shall want a doctor before we get through. But I'm with you, padre. I feel that we must see it through. If you don't like it, young fellah – « The mere suggestion was too much for Malone's Irish blood.
«I am going up alone!» he cried, making for the door.
«No, indeed. I am with you.» The clergyman hurried after him.
«And you don't go without me!» cried Lord Roxton, limping in the rear.
They stood together in the candle-lit, shadow-draped passage. Malone had his hand on the balustrade and his foot on the lower step, when it happened.
What was it? They could not tell themselves. They only knew that the black shadows at the top of the staircase had thickened, had coalesced, had taken a definite, batlike shape. Great God! They were moving! They were rushing swiftly and noiselessly downwards! Black, black as night, huge, ill-defined, semi-human and altogether evil and damnable. All three men screamed and blundered for the door. Lord Roxton caught the handle and threw it open. It was too late; the thing was upon them. They were conscious of a warm, glutinous contact, of a purulent smell, of a half-formed, dreadful face and of entwining limbs. An instant later all three were lying half-dazed and horrified, hurled outwards on to the gravel of the drive. The door had shut with a crash.
Malone whimpered and Roxton swore, but the clergyman was silent as they gathered themselves together, each of them badly shaken and bruised, but with an inward horror which made all bodily ill seem insignificant. There they stood in a little group in the light of the sinking moon, their eyes turned upon the black square of the door.
«That's enough,» said Roxton, at last.
«More than enough,» said Malone. « I wouldn't enter that house again for anything Fleet Street could offer.»
«Are you hurt?»
«Defiled, degraded – oh, it was loathsome!»
«Foul!» said Roxton! «Did you get the reek of it? And the purulent warmth?»
Malone gave a cry of disgust. «Featureless save for the dreadful eyes! Semi-materialized! Horrible!»
«What about the lights?»
«Oh, damn the lights! Let them burn. I am not going in again!»
«Well, Belchamber can come in the morning. Maybe he is waiting for us now at the inn.»
«Yes, let us go to the inn. Let us get back to humanity.» Malone and Roxton turned away, but the clergyman stood fast. He had drawn a crucifix from his pocket.
«You can go,» said he. «I am going back.»
«What! Into the house?»
«Yes, into the house.»
«Padre, this is madness! It will break your neck. We were all like stuffed dolls in its clutch.»
«Well, let it break my neck. I am going.»
«You are not! Here, Malone, catch hold of him!»
But it was too late With a few quick steps, Mr. Mason had reached the door, flung it open, passed in and closed it behind him. As his comrades tried to follow, they heard a creaking clang upon the further side. The padre had bolted them out. There was a great slit where the letter-box had been. Through it Lord Roxton entreated him to return.
«Stay there!» said the quick, stern voice of the clergyman. « I have my work to do. I will come when it is done.» A moment later he began to speak. His sweet, homely, affectionate accents rang through the hall. They could only hear snatches outside, bits of prayer, bits of exhortation, bits of kindly greeting. Looking through the narrow opening, Malone could see the straight, dark figure in the candlelight, its back to the door, its face to the shadows of the stair, the crucifix held aloft in its right hand.
His voice sank into silence and then there came one more of the miracles of this eventful night. A voice answered him. It was such a sound as neither of the auditors had heard before – a guttural, rasping, croaking utterance, indescribably menacing. What it said was short, but it was instantly answered by the clergyman, his tone sharpened to a fine edge by emotion. His utterance seemed to be exhortation and was at once answered by the ominous voice from beyond. Again and again, and yet again came the speech and the answer, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer, varying in every key of pleading, arguing, praying, soothing, and everything save upbraiding. Chilled to the marrow, Roxton and Malone crouched by the door, catching snatches of that inconceivable dialogue. Then, after what seemed a weary time, though it was less than an hour, Mr. Mason, in a loud, full, exultant tone, repeated the « Our Father.» Was it fancy, or echo, or was there really some accompanying voice in the darkness beyond him? A moment later the light went out in the left-hand window, the bolt was drawn, and the clergyman emerged carrying Lord Roxton's bag. His face looked ghastly in the moonlight, but his manner was brisk and happy.
«I think you will find everything here,» he said, handing over the bag.
Roxton and Malone took him by either arm and hurried him down to the road.
«By Jove! You don't give us the slip again!» cried the nobleman. « Padre, you should have a row of Victoria Crosses.»
«No, no, it was my duty. Poor fellow, he needed help so badly. I am but a fellow-sinner and yet I was able to give it.»
«You did him good?»
«I humbly hope so. I was but the instrument of the higher forces. The house is haunted no longer. He promised. But I will not speak of it now. It may be easier in days to come.»
The landlord and the maids stared at the three adventurers in amazement when, in the chill light of the winter dawn, they presented themselves at the inn once more. Each of them seemed to have aged five years in the night. Mr. Mason, with the reaction upon him, threw himself down upon the horsehair sofa in the humble coffee-room and was instantly asleep.
«Poor chap! He looks pretty bad!» said Malone. Indeed, his white, haggard face and long, limp limbs might have been those of a corpse.
«We will get a cup of hot tea into him,» Lord Roxton answered, warming his hands at the fire, which the maid had just lit. « By Jove! We shall be none the worse for some ourselves. Well, young fellah, we've got what we came for. I've had my sensation, and you've had your copy.
«And he has had the saving of a soul. Well, we must admit that our objects seem very humble compared to his.»
They caught the early train to London, and had a carriage to themselves. Mason had said little and seemed to be lost in thought. Suddenly he turned to his companions. «I say, you two, would you mind joining me in prayer?» Lord Roxton made a grimace. « I warn you, padre, I am rather out of practice.»
«Please kneel down with me. I want your aid.»
They knelt down, side by side, the padre in the middle. Malone made a mental note of the prayer.
«Father, we are all Your children, poor, weak, helpless creatures, swayed by Fate and circumstance. I implore You that You will turn eyes of compassion upon the man, Rupert Tremayne, who wandered far from You, and is now in the dark. He has sunk deep, very deep, for he had a proud heart which would not soften, and a cruel mind, which was filled with hate. But now he would turn to the light, and so I beg help for him and for the woman, Emma, who, for the love of him, has gone down into the darkness. May she raise him, as she had tried to do. May they both break the bonds of evil memory which tie them to earth. May they, from to-night, move up towards that glorious light which sooner or later shines upon even the lowest.»
They rose from their knees.
«That's better!» cried the padre, th
umping his chest with his bony hand, and breaking out into his expansive, toothsome grin. « What a night! Good Lord, what a night!» *
* Vide Appendix
9. Which Introduces Some Very Physical Phenomena
MALONE seemed destined to be entangled in the affairs of the Linden family, for he had hardly seen the last of the unfortunate Tom before he became involved in a very much more unpleasant fashion with his unsavoury brother.
The episode began by a telephone ring in the morning and the voice of Algernon Mailey at the far end of the wire.
«Are you clear for this afternoon?»
«At your service.»
«I say, Malone, you are a hefty man. You played Rugger for Ireland, did you not? You don't mind a possible rough-and-tumble, do you?»
Malone grinned over the receiver.
«You can count me in.»
«It may be really rather formidable. We shall have possibly to tackle a prize-fighter.»
«Right-o!» said Malone, cheerfully.
«And we want another man for the job. Do you know any fellow who would come along just for the sake of the adventure. If he knows anything about psychic matters, all the better.»
Malone puzzled for a moment. Then he had an inspiration.
«There is Roxton,» said he. « He's not a chicken, but he is a useful man in a row. I think I could get him. He has been keen on your subject since his Dorsetshire experience.»
«Right! Bring him along! If he can't come, we shall have to tackle the job ourselves. Forty-one, Belshaw Gardens, S.W. Near Earl's Court Station. Three p.m. Right!»
Malone at once rang up Lord Roxton, and soon heard the familiar voice.
«What's that, young fellah? . . . A scrap? Why, certainly. What … I mean I had a golf match at Richmond Deer Park, but this sounds more attractive…. What? Very good. I'll meet you there.»
And so it came about that at the hour of three, Mailey, Lord Roxton and Malone found themselves seated round the fire in the comfortable drawing-room of the barrister. His wife, a sweet and beautiful woman, who was his helpmate in his spiritual as well as in his material life, was there to welcome them.
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