by Gafford, Sam
“‘I was desperate for anything to distract me from my grief.
“‘I found Shonks, who was always close at hand, and asked him to go to Renaldy’s study and retrieve the will from the document box on his desk.
“‘We walked together down this very hall, but as I reached the doors I found that I was too racked with grief to enter the room. Shonks assured me that he would retrieve the documents and entered the room.
“‘As soon as he stepped into the study, the world fell into phantasmic horror.’
“‘Please elaborate,’ I urged as she paused in her story.
“‘The lights of the room flickered and went black. Renaldy’s voice came out of the ether of beyond the grave and spoke to us.’
“‘What did he say?’
“‘I was in a daze for much of the speech,’ she replied, ‘yet I remember that he called out to me and said that only his true and faithful wife could enter.’
“‘And what, pray tell,’ I asked her, “did your man, Shonks, do when he heard this?’
“She paused for a moment, as if the memory of what happened next was too much for her feminine sensibilities. Gulping air and controlling her tears, she continued, stating: ‘He laughed. Laughed like a madman and strode on into the room. He made it to where you see his body now and then paused, going instantly silent.
“‘“Shonks?” I whispered’ (she lowered her voice to add to the effect). “Why do you stop?”
“‘Just as I finished my question, the upper half of his body slid impossibly forward off of his torso and he fell with a wet slap to the floor.’
“I watched the frightened woman for any sign of madness or deceit, but there was only the pure terror of one who had seen something she could not explain. ‘What happened then?’ I prompted.
“‘I stood dumbfounded as the voice of my husband once more came from the room. “You will have to come in yourself, my love!” he raved, and his disembodied laughter chased me down the hall and away.’
“She lifted her hand and took my own. ‘That is when I called for you.’ She stepped closer as she continued, ‘My brave and gallant savior.’”
Carnacki brought the room to a moment’s pause, and I glanced around to see the smiles on the faces of the gathered men. They believed that our host was hinting at a sexual attraction between him and this woman, and perhaps that had been the case; yet I knew that he was nothing if not the consummate professional.
“I pulled my hand from her grasp as gently as I could,” Carnacki continued. “‘Mrs. Renaldy,’ I told her, ‘you should have no fear that I will get to the bottom of this mystery. If your husband indeed haunts this room, we shall see him safely to the hereafter.’
“As she thanked me profusely I inspected the large doorway that led into the magician’s den. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the doors. I opened and shut them more than once, to no revelation.
“I would have to go into the room.
“I asked Mrs. Renaldy to step back as I cautiously took one step through the door frame. As soon as my foot stepped down inside the den, the lights of the room began to flicker. I heard the small whimper behind me as a man’s voice spoke from the emptiness ahead.
“‘Ye who walk here, know my plea,’ the voice boomed. ‘No one may enter, but the good and faithful Mrs. Renaldy!’
“Glancing ahead at the two halves of poor Shonks, I quickly stepped back out of the room before any harm could come to me as well. My backward movement had the most interesting effect. As soon as I moved from the room the electric lamps came back to their eerie brightness.
“I knelt down just outside the door and moved my hand into the room. Nothing happened. I lowered myself to the floor and tried to glance along the wood of the planks. I could see some imbalance in the makeup of the floor of the study, but I would need some outside items for my experiment.
“I rose and asked Mrs. Renaldy, ‘Do you happen to have a garden?’
“I moved quickly through the back halls of the mansion, into the back yard and over to the gardener’s shed. There I found the items I sought, and within ten minutes I was back in the doorway to the study, a bucket of fresh dirt in my hands.
“I tossed the dirt across the floor of the study in the widest pattern I could create and knelt down once more to watch as the dark soil settled onto the floor.
“As it came to rest, I could see the dirt magically blown back around a plank not far inside the room. I slid forward through the newly laid earth until I hovered right above the spot.
“Once there, I could feel the slightest movement of air.
“I cleared the plank of soil and ran my right hand around the rectangular board. I could feel just the faintest of force press against my skin.
“I picked up dirt from the floor and aimed it at the crack between the planks. Again, the dirt would not fall into the crack. The air pressure pushed it out and away.
“I deduced that this plank had been removed and replaced at some point in the past. It was a pressure plate of some kind.
“I looked back to where Mrs. Renaldy watched in the doorway and saw her waif-like figure.
“‘As I am a gentleman,’ I said to her, ‘I will not ask you for a calculation of your weight; but I am very assured that you could walk through this room without inciting the wrath of your husband’s ghost.’
“‘What is your meaning, good sir?’ she asked. I rose to my knees in front of the pressure plate and traced my finger around the plank. ‘This,’ I told her, ‘is the cause of our ghostly visitation.’
“I pressed my weight onto the plank, and the haunting started anew. The lights flashed, the disembodied voice repeated its clichéd rhyme. I released the plank and all went back to normal.
“‘It is all farce,’ stated Mrs. Renaldy, a small hint of annoyance in her voice. ‘Damn you, Garnald!’
“She started forward into the room, but I held out a hand. ‘Though I believe these pressure plates are set to a heavier weight, I would hate to see you cut in half for a final time. Please wait until I see to the other trap.’
“She paused in her advance and, still on the floor, I inspected the soil-covered area in front of me until I saw the plank of the next pressure plate. I then dragged myself through the dirt until I was right next to the second trap.
“Unfortunately, this also placed me closer to the two pieces of poor Mr. Shonks. The soil around his body had mixed with the large pool of his crimson blood, and I am afraid it will never come out of this suit.”
Nervous laughter escaped from the gathered men and quickly died away. We surely had no idea how to take the story being laid out before us.
“I calculated the height of his legs and torso as accurately as I could, and then I paused a moment to remove my tie.”
Carnacki pulled the tie from his breast pocket to illustrate his movements.
“I then held the tie in one hand and placed my other hand on the pressure plate. As I pressed down with my weight, I tossed the tie into the air.”
Our host tossed his tie up and forward. The silk fabric fell into two pieces as it dropped to the floor of the room where we had gathered.
“Shifting my weight on the trap from my hand to my foot, I stood up,” Carnacki continued. “Across the room my eyes could barely trace the thin metal wire that was pulled tight and was activated by a powerful spring when the unwitting victim pressed his weight onto the plank.
“I knelt down to let the trap reset and was about to turn my attention to the small box on the desk in front of me when the late magician’s wife brushed quickly past.
“I had been right about the pressure plates. Neither of them had been set off by the woman’s weight. This box was meant for Anastasia Renaldy alone.”
Carnacki directed the step of his pipe towards us gathered few.
“But why?” he said. “That was what was puzzling me. Why go to all this trouble to keep everyone from that box, but her?
“As she reached for th
e lid, I screamed, ‘Wait!’
“Anastasia paused with her hand on the box and a sly smile on her face.
“‘Mr. Carnacki,’ she said. ‘I thank you for your service, but I believe I can take it from here. Please send me the bill and I will pay you whatever you require for your service.’
“‘I require,’ I replied as I stepped forward and placed my hand on the top of the box lid, ‘that you put your faith in me one last time.’
“The girlish turn of her mouth faded a little then and for a moment I could see the ageing woman beneath the young façade. ‘But, sir,’ she said, ‘we have won my late husband’s little game.’
“‘Have we?’ I asked. ‘Or are we still stepping to his plan?’
“She moved back from the box, unsure, and my eyes searched the desktop. There, among documents and detritus, sat a large silver letter opener.
“Mrs. Renaldy’s eyes followed mine and she slowly plucked it up.
“I retreated a little as she held the silver knife at the edge of her reach and used the tip to throw back the box top.
“There was a release of air pressure as liquid sprayed up from the box and fell over the old chair that sat behind the desk. The leather hissed as the liquid mist touched its surface, the acid eating away at the chair back in the same way it would have eaten Anastasia Renaldy’s face.
“Suddenly the voice of the dead magician started again. This time I could hear the drop of the needle and scratch of the vinyl that identified the source as a gramophone.
“‘Did you think me blind, my dear?’ the dead man seethed. ‘Not to know that you were plotting my death, not to see that you and that damnable Mr. Shonks were planning my demise? Well, if you are hearing this, you must have gotten what you longed for. Yet I have also had my revenge. Your lover should be half the man he used to be.’ Renaldy laughed at his sick pun. ‘Though he was never even half the man I was.
“‘And you!’ The dead man's voice rose in vehemence. ‘You are now as ugly on the outside as ever you were on the inside.’ Another pause of laughter from the machine. ‘I hope you live a long and sad life, still getting the looks that have always come your way, but now the reason will be disgust and ridicule. The Great Renaldy’s final masterpiece—may it live in your mind forever!’
“With that, the message ended,” said Carnacki.
“Mrs. Renaldy, accused of killing her husband by a recording made before the incident had even occurred,” I said as I saw the gathered men shaking their heads in disbelief.
“What happened to the woman?” said Arkright.
Carnacki reluctantly went on.
“Mrs. Renaldy stood in silence as her dead husband laid out his indictment. When it was finished, she looked from the box to me. As our eyes met, I could see that what her husband had said was true.
“For the briefest of moments we stood there, neither knowing how to proceed. Then my eyes moved to the silver letter opener in her hand.
“Like a crazed cat, the woman lunged towards me. I did the only thing I could.
“I dived backwards to the floor. I felt the pressure plate engage under me, and Mrs. Renaldy let out a fractured scream as the thin wire cleaved her head from her shoulders. Her body fell to one side of my prone frame, the head to the other.
“I rested there for a moment, sickened by the idea that I had found myself in a charnel house. Then I rose and went out to alert the authorities.”
Carnacki paused for a moment and stood from his great chair.
“So ends my story of the magician’s study.”
“You have not even had a moment to change your clothes?” I asked.
“The police kept me there until the very hour of our dinner date,” Carnacki replied. “The details were presented over and over, along with the mechanisms. Then they asked me to dismantle the traps and find the phonographs.
“However,” he continued, “you do remind me that I am a fright. I must have a bath and a good night’s sleep.
“Out you go!” he said in his friendly fashion, using the recognised formula. Yet I believed I heard a crack in the Carnacki façade. He had seen something in the magician’s house. The man hunted ghosts, but rarely had he seen death so close up.
I wondered if he would get to sleep that night. I knew I would not without a good stiff drink.
With a shake of hands and one more complaint about the unusual heat, we retreated out into the quiet of the Embankment, and so to our homes.
How They Met Themselves
Charles R. Rutledge
London England, September 1911
Now who can that be?” Carnacki said, looking up from the table where he had been fine-tuning the inner workings of the electric pentacle. Someone was knocking at the front door.
Carnacki checked his pocket watch as he walked to the foyer. The time was approaching six in the evening. Though Dodgson, Arkright, Jessop, and Taylor were supposed to join him for dinner the following evening, he wasn’t expecting anyone on this particular night.
Carnacki opened the door to find his old friend Sir Hugh Collins standing on the doorstep of 427 Cheyne Walk in a very agitated state. The tall, somewhat burly man’s wide shoulders were slumped, and the expression on his lined face told of some grave misfortune.
“Sir Hugh,” Carnacki said, “come in. Whatever has happened?”
“I need for you to come back to Norwich with me, Carnacki. You’re the only one who can help me. My driver is waiting to take us to Collins Thorpe House.”
“Wait, wait, my friend. Surely you can tell me what has happened? I need some idea if I’m to help you.”
“It’s my boy, Edward. Both he and his fiancée, Alice Mayhew, have been stricken by some dreadful wasting malady.”
“You know I’ll do whatever I can, but perhaps a physician would be of more use?”
“I’ve already brought in three different doctors. None of them can help. And from what Edward told me, this is no natural sickness. It’s as if the very life is being drained away from them both. Now please, come with me. We can’t waste any time.”
“Can you tell me why Edward thinks this malady is of supernatural origin?”
“There’s no time, Carnacki,” Sir Hugh said, grasping at Carnacki’s lapels. “I’ll tell you what I know on the way, but we must go.”
Carnacki could see that Sir Hugh was too distraught to be of much help. He said, “Very well. Let me gather some of my equipment. I promise I’ll make haste.”
Carnacki hurried to his workshop and selected anything he thought possibly useful and sufficiently portable, and put the items into a travel case. He added the reassembled electric pentacle and was still stuffing objects into his pockets as he joined Sir Hugh on the front steps. The sun was already almost below the horizon, and a cold autumn wind made Carnacki button his overcoat. Soon both men were bundled into the spacious back seat of Sir Hugh’s automobile.
When the car was hurtling northeastward, Carnacki said, “I know this is distressing, Sir Hugh, but please tell me what you can.”
Sir Hugh produced a flask from an inner pocket and took a long drink. He took a deep breath and said, “You know that Collins Thorpe House sits near a large forest. The wood has never been of much use. Nasty tangled place, full of old trees. No good for hunting.”
Carnacki nodded. He recalled that the forest was indeed a dark and foreboding place.
“Despite that,” Sir Hugh went on, “Edward liked to play there as boys will. Several years ago, when he was still a lad, he found an old stone circle. A Druid ring, as they’re sometimes known. I told him to stay away from the place, but I know that sometimes he and his mates still went there.
“Edward met Alice Mayhew at university, and it was love at first sight as they say. I would rather he waited until he was a bit older to marry, but youth calls to youth and all that. In any case, my wife and I like the girl and she comes from a good family. We invited Edward to bring her to Collins Thorpe House for a few days so we could all
get better acquainted.
“Everything was going well until Edward decided he would show Alice that damnable Druid ring. They went for a stroll in the woods yesterday afternoon. When they hadn’t returned by near sunset, I sent one of the servants to look for them. He found the couple lying senseless at the edge of the forest.”
“Were there any signs of violence?” Carnacki said.
“Not a mark on either of them,” said Sir Hugh. “We got them in the house and eventually managed to rouse them with smelling salts and brandy, but both of them remained very weak. I was able to get a story out of Edward, but it was so strange that I thought him delirious. I called in my personal physician, and though he could find nothing wrong with Edward or Alice, he told me that both of them seemed to be getting weaker by the moment. Their heartbeats and breathing were slowing, almost as if they were both very elderly and near death.
“I called in two more doctors, but both told me the same thing. They told me that if their condition continued to worsen both of them would be dead within two days. I don’t mind telling you, Carnacki, that I was beside myself. Edward is my only son, my entire world. It was then that I began to think about his strange story, and I thought to myself, what if the tale was true? Then I knew that I had to come to you.”
“And what was this strange story?” Carnacki said.
Sir Hugh drew in another long breath. “Edward said that he and Alice made their way through the woods to the Druid ring, but when they got there, the sky looked like rain and they decided to hurry back. He said that as they walked through the woods the sky grew darker, so that under the trees it was like twilight. Though he had made the walk many times, Edward somehow lost his way and they ended up going around in circles.
“Then Edward saw someone approaching through the trees. He was glad for a moment, thinking perhaps the newcomers could help him find the way out of the forest; but as the pair got closer, he saw that there was something odd about them. Edward said that there seemed to be a weird glowing effect surrounding the figures, as if their very bodies were emanating a baleful light. As they came even closer, Edward and Alice saw that the other two people were their exact physical doubles. They were like twins of my boy and his girl.