Tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle the horror of the heights This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Igor he4a Tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle the horror of the heights The idea that the extraordinary narrative which has been called the Joyce Armstrong fragment is an elaborate practical joke Evolved by some unknown person cursed by a perverted Unsinister sense of humor has now been abandoned by all who have examined the matter The most macabre and imaginative of plotters would hesitate before linking his morbid fancies with the unquestioned and tragic facts which reinforce the statement Though the assertions contained in it are amazing and even monstrous It is nonetheless forcing itself upon the general intelligence that they are true and that we must readjust our ideas to the new situation This world of ours appears to be separated by a slight and precarious margin of safety from a most singular and unexpected danger I Will endeavor in this narrative which reproduces the original document in its necessarily somewhat fragmentary form To lay before the reader the whole of the facts up to date Prefacing my statement by saying that if there be any without the narrative of Joyce Armstrong There can be no question at all as to the facts concerning Lieutenant Myrtle R.N And Mr. Hey Connor who undoubtedly met their end in the manner described The Joyce Armstrong fragment was found in the field which is called lower. Hey cock lying one mile to the westward of the village of Whitham upon the Kent and Sussex border It was on the 15th September last that an agricultural laborer James Flynn in the employment of Matthew Dodd Farmer of the Choundree farm Whitham Perceived a briar pipe lying near the footpath which skirts the hedge and lower. Hey cock a Few paces farther on he picked up a pair of broken binocular glasses Finally among some nettles in the ditch he caught sight of flat canvas-backed book which proved to be a notebook with detachable leaves Some of which had come loose and were fluttering along the base the hedge These he collected but some including the first were never recovered and leave a deplorable hiatus in this all important statement The notebook was taken by the laborer to his master Who in turn showed it to dr. J. H. Atherton of Hartfield? This gentleman at once recognized the need for an expert examination and the manuscript was forwarded to the arrow club in London Where it now lies The first two pages of the manuscript are missing There's also one torn away at the end of the narrative Though none of these affect the general coherence of the story It is conjectured that the missing opening is concerned with the record of mr. Joyce Armstrong's qualification as an aeronaut Which can be gathered from other sources and are admitted to be unsurpassed among the air pilots of England For many years he has been looked upon as among the most daring and the most Intellectual of flying men a combination which has enabled him to both invent and test several new devices Including the common gyroscopic attachment, which is known by his name The main body of the manuscript is written neatly in ink But the last few lines are in pencil and are so ragged as to be hardly legible Exactly in fact as they might be expected to appear if there were scribbled off hurriedly from the seat of a moving airplane There are it may be added several stains both on the last page and on the outside cover Which have been pronounced by the home office experts to be blood probably human and certainly mammalian The fact that something closely resembling the organism of malaria was discovered in this blood And that Joyce Armstrong is known to have suffered from intermittent fever is a remarkable example of the new weapons Which modern science has placed in the hands of our detectives and Now word as to the personality of the author of this epoch-making statement Joyce Armstrong according to the few friends who really knew something of the man Was a poet and a dreamer as well as a mechanic and an inventor He was a man of considerable wealth much of which he had spent in the pursuit of his aeronautical hobby He had four private aeroplanes in his hangars near devices and is said to have made no fewer than 170 ascents in the course of last year He was a retiring man with dark moods in which you would avoid the society of his fellows Captain Dangerfield who knew him better than anyone says that there were times when his eccentricity threatened to develop into something more serious His habit of carrying a shotgun with him in his aeroplane was one manifestation of it Another was the morbid effect which the fall of Lieutenant Myrtle had upon his mind Myrtle was attempting the height record fell from an altitude of something over 30,000 feet Horrible to narrate his head was entirely obliterated though his body and limbs preserved their configuration At every gathering of airmen Joyce Armstrong according to Dangerfield would ask with an enigmatic smile and Where pray is Myrtle's head? On another occasion after dinner at the mass of the flying school on Southbury Plain He started a debate as to what will be the most permanent danger which airmen will have to encounter Having listened to successive opinions as to air pockets faulty construction and over banking He ended by shrugging his shoulders and refusing to put forward his own views Though he gave the impression that they differed from any advanced by his companions It is worth remarking that after his own complete disappearance It was found that his private affairs were arranged with a precision which may show that he had a strong premonition of disaster With these essential Explanations, I will now give the narrative exactly as it stands Beginning at page three of the blood soaked notebook Nevertheless when I dined at rhymes with the Cosselian Gustav Raymond I found that neither of them was aware of any particular danger in the higher layers of the atmosphere. I Did not actually say what was in my thoughts But I got so near to it that if they had any corresponding idea they could not have failed to express it But then they are too empty vain glorious fellows with no thought beyond seeing their silly names in the newspaper It is interesting to note that neither of them had ever been much beyond the twenty thousand foot level of course Man have been higher than this both in balloons and in the ascent of mountains It must be well above that point that the aeroplane enters the danger zone Always presuming that my premonitions are correct Aeroplaning has been with us now for more than 20 years and one might well ask Why should this peril be only revealing itself in our day? The answer is obvious in the old days of weak engines when a hundred horsepower Gnome or green was considered ample for every need the flights were very restricted Now that 300 horsepower is the rule rather than the exception Visits to the upper layers have become easier and more common Some of us can remember how in our youth Garrus made a worldwide reputation by attaining 19,000 feet and it was considered a remarkable achievement to fly over the Alps Our standard now has been immeasurably raised and there are 20 high flights for one in former years Many of them have been undertaking with impunity The 30,000 foot level has been reached time after time with no discomfort beyond cold and asthma What does this prove a Visitor might descend upon this planet a thousand times and never see a tiger Yet tigers exist and if he chance to come down into a jungle he might be devoured There are jungles of the upper air and there were things than tigers which inhabit them. I Believe in time. They will map these jungles accurately out Even at the present moment. I could name two of them One of them lies over the Pier Bourrits district of France Another is just over my head as I right here in my house in Wiltshire. I Rather think there's a third in the Homburg Vispaden district It was the disappearance of the airmen that first set me thinking Of course, everyone said that they had fallen into the sea But that did not satisfy me at all First there was Vérir in France His machine was found near beyond But they never got his body There was the case of Baxter also who vanished though his engine and some of the iron fixings Were found in a wood in Leicestershire In that case, Dr. Middleton of Amesbury Who was watching the flight with a telescope declares that just before the clouds obscured the view he saw the machine Which was at an enormous height suddenly arise perpendicularly upwards in a succession of jerks in a manner that he would have thought to be impossible That was the last scene of Baxter That was a correspondence in the paper, but it never led to anything There were several other similar cases and then there was the death of a corner What a cackle that was about an unsolved mystery of the air and what columns and the half penny papers and Yet how little was ever done to get to the bottom of the business He came down in a tremendous wall plane from an unknown height He never got off his machine and died in his pilot seat Died of what? Heart disease, said the doctors Rubbish, hey Connors heart was as sound as mine is What did Venables say? Venables was the only man who was at his side when he died He said that he was shivering and looked like a man who had been badly scared That of fright, said Venables, but could not imagine what he was frightened about Only said one word to Venables, which sounded like Monstrous They could make nothing of that at the inquest But I could make something of it Monstrous That was the last word of poor Harry, hey Connors, and he did die of fright just as Venables thought And then That was Myrtle's head Do you really believe, does anybody really believe, that a man's head could be driven clean into his body by the force of a fall? Well, perhaps it may be possible, but I for one have never believed that it was so with Myrtle And the grease upon his clothes all slimy with grease said somebody at the inquest Where that nobody got thinking after that I did, but then I had been thinking for a good long time I've made three ascents how danger field used to chaff me about my shotgun But I've never been high enough Now with this new light Paul Barona machine And it's 175 rover I should easily touch the 30 000 tomorrow I'll have a shot at the record Maybe I shall have a shot at something else as well Of course, it's dangerous If a fellow wants to avoid danger He had at best keep out of flying all together and subside finally into flannel slippers and the dressing gown But I'll visit the air jungle tomorrow And if there's anything there, I shall know it If I return, I'll find myself a bit of a celebrity If I don't, this notebook may explain what I'm trying to do And how I lost my life in doing it But no drivel about accidents or mysteries If you please I chose my Paul Barona monoplane for the job There's nothing like a monoplane when real work is to be done Beaumont found that out in the very early days For one thing it doesn't mind the hump and the weather looks as if we should be in the clouds all the time It's a bunny little model and answers my hand like a tender mouth horse The engine is a 10 cylinder rotary rover working up to 175 It has all the modern improvements in closed fuselage High-curve landing skids brakes gyroscopic steadiers And three speeds worked by an alteration of the angle of the planes upon the Venetian blind principle I took a shotgun with me and a dozen cartridges filled with buckshot You should have seen the face of Perkins my old mechanic when I directed him to put them in I was dressed like an Arctic explorer with two jerseys under my overalls Thick socks inside my padded boots a storm cap with flaps and my torque goggles It was stifling outside the hangers, but I was going for the summit of the Himalayas and I had to dress for the part Perkins knew there was something on and implored me to take him with me Perhaps I should if I were using the biplane But a monoplane is a one-man show If you want to get the last foot of life out of it Of course I took an oxygen bag the man who goes for the altitude record without one will either be frozen or smothered or both I had a good look at the planes the rudder bar and the elevating lever before I got in Everything was in order so far as I could see Then I switched on my engine and found that he was running sweetly When they let her go she rose almost at once upon the lowest speed I circled my home field once or twice just to warm her up And then with a wave to Perkins and the others I flattened out my planes and put her on her highest She skimmed like a swallow downwind for eight or ten miles until I turned her nose up a little And she began to climb In a great spiral for the cloud bank above me It's all important to rise slowly and adapt yourself to the pressure as you go It was a close warm day for an English September and there was the hush and heaviness of impending rain Now and then there came sudden puffs of wind from the west One of them so gusty and unexpected that it caught me napping and turned me half around for an instant I remember the time when gusts and whirls and air pockets used to be things of danger Before we learned to put an over mastering power into our engines Just as I reached the cloud banks with the altimeter marking 3000 Down came the rain My word how it poured it drummed upon my wings and lashed against my face Blurring my glasses so that I could hardly see I got down onto a low speed for it was painful to travel against it As I got higher it became hail and I had to turn tail to it One of my cylinders was out of action a dirty plug I should imagine But still I was rising steadily with plenty of power After a bit the trouble passed Whatever it was and I heard a full deep-throated purr the ten singing as one That's where the beauty of our modern silencers comes in We cannot last control our engines by ear how they squeal and squeak and sob when they are in trouble All those cries for help were wasted in the old days when every sound was swallowed up by the monstrous racket of the machine If only the early aviators could come back to see the beauty and perfection of the mechanism Which have been bought at the costs of their lives About 9 30 I was nearing the clouds Down below me orb word and shadowed with rain laid the vast expanse of saltsbury plane Half a dozen flying machines were doing hack work at the thousand foot level Looking like little black swallows against the green background I daresay they were wondering what I was doing up in cloud land Suddenly a gray curtain drew across beneath me and the wet folds of vapours were swirling around my face It was clamily cold and miserable But I was above the hailstorm and that was something gained The cloud was as dark and thick as a london fog in my anxiety to get clear I cocked her nose up until the automatic alarm bell rang and I actually began to slide backwards My soft and dripping wings had made me heavier than I thought But presently I was in lighter cloud and soon had cleared the first layer There was a second opal coloured and fleecy at a great height above my head A white unbroken ceiling above and a dark unbroken floor below With a monoplane laboring upwards upon a vast spiral between them It is deadly lonely in these cloud spaces Once a great flight of some small border birds went past me flying very fast to the westwards The quick roar of their wings and their musical cry were cheery to my ear I fancy that they were teal but I'm a wretched zoologist Now that we humans have become birds we must really learn to know our brethren by sight The wind down beneath me whirled and swayed the broad cloud plane Once a great eddy formed in it a whirlpool of vapor and threw it as down a funnel I caught sight of the distant world a large white biplane was passing at a vast depth Beneath me I fancy it was the morning mail service betwixt Bristol and London Then the drifts whirled inwards again and the great solitude was unbroken Just after 10 I touched the lower edge of the upper cloud's stratum It consisted of fine diphenous vapor drifting swiftly from the westwards The wind had been steadily rising all this time and it was now blowing a sharp breeze 28 an hour by my gauge already it was very cold though my altimeter only marked 9000 The engines were working beautifully and we went browning steadily upwards The cloud bank was thicker than I had expected but at last it thinned out into a golden mist before me and then in an instant I had shot out from it and there was an unclouded sky and a brilliant sun above my head all blue and gold above all shining silver below one vast glimmering plane as far as my eyes could reach it was a quarter past 10 o'clock and the barograph needle pointed to 12800 up I went up my ears concentrated upon the deep purring of the motor my eyes busy always with the watch the revolution indicator the petrol liver and the oil pump no wonder aviators are said to be a fearless race with so many things to think of there's no time to trouble about oneself about this time I noted how unreliable is the compass when above a certain height from earth at 15 000 feet mine was pointing east and the point south the sun and the wind gave me my true bearings I had hoped to reach an eternal stillness in these high altitudes but with every thousand feet of ascent the gale grew stronger my machine groaned and trembled in every joint and rivet as she faced it and swept away like a sheet of paper when I banged her on the turn skimming down wind at a greater pace perhaps than ever mortal man has moved yet I had always to turn again and tech up in the wind's eye for it was not merely a height record that I was after by all my calculations it was above little wheelchair that my air jungle lay and all my labor might be lost if I struck the outer layers at some farther point when I reached the 19 000 foot level which was about midday the wind was so severe that I looked with some anxiety to the states of my wings expecting momentarily to see them snap or slacken I even cast loose the parachute behind me and fastened its hook into the ring of my leather and belt so as to be ready for the worst now was the time when a bit of scammed work by the mechanic is paid for by the life of the aeronaut but she held together bravely every cordon strut was humming and vibrating like so many harp strings but it was glorious to see how for all the beating and the buffeting she was still the conqueror of nature and the mistress of the sky there's surely something divine in man himself that he should rise so superior to the limitations which creation seemed to impose rise to by such unselfish heroic devotion as this air conquest has shown talk of human degeneration when such a story as this been written in the annals of our race these were my thoughts in my head as I climbed that monstrous inclined plane with the wind sometimes beating in my face and sometimes whistling behind my ears while the cloudland beneath me fell away to such distance that the folds and hummocks of silver had all smoothed out into one flat shining plane but suddenly I had a horrible and unprecedented experience I have known before what it is to be in what our neighbors have called a tourbillon but never on such a scale as this that huge sweeping river of wind of which I have spoken had as it appears whirlpools within it which were as monstrous as itself without the moment's warning I was dragged suddenly into the heart of one I spun round for a minute or two with such velocity that I almost lost my senses and then fell suddenly left wing foremost down the vacuum funnel in the center I dropped like a stone and lost nearly a thousand feet it was only my belt that kept me in my seat and the shock and breathlessness left me hanging half insensible over the side of the fuselage but I am always capable of a supreme effort it is my one great merit as an aviator I was conscious that the descent was slower the whirlpool was a cone rather than a funnel and I had come to the apex with a terrific wrench throwing my weight all to one side I leveled my planes and brought her head away from the wind in an instant I had shot out of the eddies and was skimming down the sky then shaken but victorious I turned her nose up and began once more my steady grind on the upward spiral I took a large sweep to avoid the dangerous spot of the whirlpool and soon I was safely above it just after one o'clock I was 21 000 feet above the sea level to my great joy I had topped the gale and with every hundred feet of ascent the air grew stiller on the other hand it was very cold and I was conscious of that peculiar nausea which goes with rarefaction of the air for the first time I unscrewed the mouth of my oxygen bag and took an occasional whiff of that glorious gas I could feel it running like a cordial through my veins and I was exhilarated almost to the point of drunkenness I shouted and sang as I soared upwards into the cold steel outer world it was very clear to me that the insensibility which came upon glacier and in a lesser degree upon coxwell when in 1862 they ascended in a balloon to the height of 30 000 feet was due to the extreme speed with which perpendicular ascent is made doing it at an easy gradient and accustoming oneself to the lessened barometric pressure by slow degrees there are no such dreadful symptoms at the same great height I found that even without my oxygen inhaler I could breathe without undue distress it was bitterly cold however and my thermometer was at zero Fahrenheit at 130 I was nearly seven miles above the surface of the earth and still ascending steadily I found however that the rarefied air was giving markedly less support to my planes and that the angle of ascent had to be considerably lowered in consequence it was already clear that even with my lightweight and strong engine power there was a point in front of me where I should be held to make matters worse one of my sparking plugs was in trouble again and there was intermittent misfiring in the engine my heart was heavy with the fear of failure it was about that time that I had a most extraordinary experience something whizzed past me in a trail of smoke and exploded with a loud hissing sound sending forth a cloud of steam for the instant I could not imagine what had happened then I remembered that the earth is forever being bombarded by meteor stones and would be hardly inhabitable where they not in nearly every case turned into vapor in the outer layers of the atmosphere here is a new danger for the high altitude man for two others passed me when I was nearing the 40 000 foot mark I cannot doubt that at the edge of the earth's envelope the risk would be a very real one my barograph needle marked 41 300 when I became aware that I could go no farther physically the strain was not as yet greater than I could bear but my machine had reached its limit the attenuated air gave no firm support to the wings and the least tilt developed into side slip while she seemed sluggish on her controls possibly had the engine been at its best another thousand feet might have been within our capacity but it was still misfiring and two out of ten cylinders appear to be out of action if I had not already reached the zone for which I was searching then I should never see it upon this journey but was it not possible that I had attained it soaring in circles like a monstrous hawk upon the 40 000 foot level I let the monoplane guide herself and with my man I'm glass I made a careful observation of my surroundings the heavens were perfectly clear there was no indication of those dangers which I had imagined I have said that I was soaring in circles it struck me suddenly that I would do well to take a wire sweep and open up a new air track if the hunter entered an earth jungle he would drive through it if he wished to find his game my reasoning had led me to believe that the air jungle which I had imagined lay somewhere over the world share this should be to the south and west of me I took my bearings from the sun for the compass was hopeless and no trace of earth was to be seen nothing but the distant silver cloud plane however I got my direction as best I might and kept her head straight to the mark I reckoned that my petrol supply would not last for more than another hour or so but I could afford to use it to the last drop since a single magnificent volplane could at any time take me to the earth suddenly I was aware of something new the air in front of me had lost its crystal clearness it was full of long ragged wisps of something which I can only compare to very fine cigarette smoke it hung about in wreaths and coils turning and twisting slowly in the sunlight as the monoplane shot through it I was aware of a faint taste of oil upon my lips and there was a greasy scum upon the woodwork of the machine some infinitely fine organic matter appeared to be suspended in the atmosphere there was no life there it was inchoate and diffuse extending for many square acres and then fringing off into the void no it was not life but might it not be the remains of life above all might it not be the food of life of monstrous life even as the humble grease of the ocean is the food for the mighty whale the thought was in my mind when my eyes looked upwards and I saw the most wonderful vision that ever man has seen can I hope to convey to you even as I saw it myself last thirsty conceive a jellyfish such as sails in our summer seas bell-shaped and of enormous size far larger I should judge than the dome of sandpals it was of a light pink color veined with a delicate green but the whole huge fabric so tenuous that it was but a fairy outline against the dark blue sky it pulsated with a delicate and regular rhythm from it there depended two long drooping green tentacles which swayed slowly backwards and forwards this gorgeous vision passed gently with noiseless dignity over my head as light and fragile as a soap bubble and drifted upon in its stately way I had half turned my monoplane that I might look after this beautiful creature when in a moment I find myself amidst a perfect fleet of them of all sizes but none so large as the first some were quite small but the majority about as big as an average balloon and much with the same curvature at the top there was in them a delicacy of texture and coloring which reminded me of the finest venetian glass pale shades of pink and green were the prevailing tins but all had a lovely iridescence where the sun shimmered through their dainty forms some hundreds of them drifted past me a wonderful fairy squadron of strange unknown argosis of the sky creatures whose forms and substance were so attuned to these pure heights that one could not conceive anything so delicate with an actual sight or sound of earth but soon my attention was drawn to a new phenomenon the serpents of the outer air these were long thin fantastic coils of vapor like material which turned and twisted with great speed flying round and round at such a pace that the eyes could hardly follow them some of these ghostlike creatures were 20 or 30 feet long but it was difficult to tell their growth for their outline was so hazy that it seemed to fade away into the air around them these air snakes were of a very light gray or smoke color with some darker lines within which gave the impression of a definite organism one of them whisked past my very face and I was conscious of a cold clammy contact but their composition was so unsubstantial that I could not connect them with any thought of physical danger any more than the beautiful bell-like creatures which had preceded them there was no more solidity in their frames than in a floating spume from a broken wave but a more terrible experience was in store for me floating downwards from a great height there came a purplish patch of vapor small as I saw it first but rapidly enlarging as it approached me until it appeared to be hundreds of square feet in size though fashioned of some transparent jelly-like substance it was nonetheless of much more definite outline and solid consistency than anything which I had seen before there were more traces too of a physical organization especially too vast shadowy circular plates upon either side which may have been eyes and a perfectly solid white projection between them which was as curved and cruel as the beak of a vulture the whole aspect of this monster was formidable and threatening and it kept changing its color from a very light morph to a dark angry purple so thick that it cast a shadow as it drifted between my monoplane and the sun on the upper curve of its huge body there were three great projections which I can only describe as enormous bubbles and I was convinced as I looked at them that they were charged with some extremely light gas which served to buoy up the misshapen and semi-solid mass in the rarefied air the creature moved swiftly along keeping pace easily with the monoplane and for 20 miles or more it formed my horrible escort hovering over me like a bird of prey which is waiting to pounce its method of progression done so swiftly that it was not easy to follow was to throw out a long glutinous streamer in front of it which in turn seemed to draw forward the rest of the writhing body so elastic and gelatinous was it that never for two successive minutes was it in the same shape and yet each change made it more threatening and loathsome than the last I knew it meant mischief every purple flash of its hideous body told me so the vague googling eyes which were turned always upon me were cold and merciless in their visit hatred I dipped the nose of my monoplane downward to escape it as I did so as quick as a flash there shot out a long tentacle from this mass of floating blubber and it fell as light and sinuous as a whiplash across the front of my machine there was a loud hiss as it lay for a moment across the hot engine and it whisked itself into the air again while the huge flat body drew itself together as if in sudden pain I dipped to a vole peak but again a tentacle fell over the monoplane and was shorn off by the propeller as easily as it might have cut through a smoke breath a long lighting sticky serpent-like coil came from behind and caught me around my waist dragging me out of the fuselage I tore it my fingers sinking into the smooth glue-like surface and for an instant I disengaged myself but only to be caught around the boot by another coil which gave me a jerk that tilted me almost onto my back as I fell over I blazed off both barrels of my gun though indeed it was like attacking an elephant with a pea shooter to imagine that any human weapon could cripple that mighty bog and yet I am better than I knew for with a loud report one of the great blisters upon the creature's back exploded with a puncture of the buckshot it was very clear that my conjecture was right and that these vast clear bledders were distended with some lifting gas for in an instant the huge cloud-like body turned sideways rithing desperately to find its balance while the white beak snapped and gaped in horrible fury but already I had shot away on the steepest glide that I dared to attempt my engine still full on the flying propeller and the force of gravity shooting me downwards like an arrow light far behind me I saw dull purplish smudge growing swiftly smaller and merging into the blue sky behind me I was safe out of the deadly jungle of the outer air once out of danger I throttle my engine for nothing tears a machine to pieces quicker than running on full power from a height it was a glorious spiral volplane from nearly eight miles of altitude first to the level of the silver cloud bank then to that of the storm cloud beneath it and finally in beating rain to the surface of the earth I saw the Bristol Channel beneath me as I broke from the clouds but having still some petrol in my tank I got 20 miles inland before I found myself stranded in a field half a mile from the village of Ashcomb there I got three tins of petrol from a passing motor car and at 10 minutes past six that evening I alighted gently in my own home meadow at devices after such a journey as no mortal upon earth has ever yet taken and lived to tell the tale I have seen the beauty and I've seen the horror of the heights and greater beauty or greater horror than that is not within the can of man and now it is my plan to go once again before I give my results to the world my reason for this is that I must surely have something to show by the way of proof before I lay such a tale before my fellow men it is true that others will soon follow and will confirm what I have said and yet I should wish to carry conviction from the first those lovely iridescent bubbles of the air should not be hard to capture they drift slowly upon their way and the swift monoplane could intercept their leisurely course it is likely enough that they would dissolve in the heavier layers of the atmosphere and that some small heap of amorphous jelly might be all that I should bring to earth with me and yet something there would surely be by which I could substantiate my story yes I will go even if I run a risk by doing so these purple horrors would not seem to be numerous it is probable that I shall not see one if I do I shall dive at once at the worst there's always the shotgun at my knowledge of here a page of the manuscript is unfortunately missing on the next page is written in large straggling writing 43 000 feet I shall never see earth again they are beneath me three of them god help me it is a dreadful death to die such in its entirety is the joys armstrong statement of the man nothing has since been seen pieces of his shattered monoplane have been picked up in the preserves of mr bud lushington upon the borders of kent and sussex within a few miles of the spot where the notebook was discovered if the unfortunate aviators theory is correct that this air jungle as he called it existed over the southwest of england then it would seem that he had fled from it at full speed of his monoplane but had been overtaken and devoured by these horrible creatures at some spot in the outer atmosphere above the place where the grim relics were found the picture of that monoplane skimming down the sky with the nameless terrors flying as swiftly beneath it and cutting it off always from the earth while they gradually closed in upon their victim is one upon which a man who valued his sanity would prefer not to dwell there are many as i'm aware who still jeer at the facts which i have here set down but even they must admit that joys armstrong has disappeared and i would commend to them his own words this notebook may explain what i'm trying to do and how i lost my life in doing it but no drivel about accidents or mysteries if you please and of the horror of the heights by arthur conan doil recording by igor t4a in mac de berg germany may 24th 2007 tales of terror and mystery by sir arthur conan doil this is a liber vox recording all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liber vox.org tales of terror and mystery by arthur conan doil the leather funnel my friend lionel dacker lived in the avenue du wagram paris his house was that small one with the iron railings and grass plot in front of it on the left hand side as you pass down from the arctic triumph i fancy that it had been there long before the avenue was constructed for the gray tiles were stained with lichen and the walls were mildewed and it's colored with age it looked a small house from the street five windows in front if i remember right but it deepened into a single long chamber at the back it was here that dacker had that singular library of occult literature and the fantastic curiosities which served as a hobby for himself and an amusement for his friends a wealthy man of refined and eccentric tastes he'd spent much of his life in fortune and gathering together what was said to be a unique private collection of talmudic cabalistic and magical works many of them great rarity and value his tastes lean toward the marvelous and the monstrous and i have heard that his experiments in that direction of the unknown have passed all the bounds of civilization and of decorum to his english friends he never alluded to such matters and took the tone of a student and a virtuoso but a frenchman whose tastes were of the same nature has assured me that the worst excesses of the black mass have been perpetrated in that large and lofty hall which is lined with the shelves of his books and the cases of his museum dacker's appearance was enough to show that his deep interest in these psychic matters was intellectual rather than spiritual there was no trace of asceticism upon his heavy face but there was much mental force in his huge domed like skull which curved upward from amongst his thinning locks like a snow peak above its fringe of fir trees his knowledge was greater than his wisdom and his powers were far superior to his character the small bright eyes buried deeply in his fleshy face twinkled with intelligence and an unabated curiosity for life but they were the eyes of a sensualist and an egoist enough of the man for he's dead now poor devil dead at the very time that he had made sure that he had at last discovered the elixir of life it is not with this complex character that i have to deal but with a very strange and inexplicable incident which had its rise in my visit to him in the early spring of the year 82 i'd known dacker in england for my research is in the assyrian room with the british museum had been conducted at the time when he was endeavoring to establish a mystic and esoteric meaning in the babelonian tablets and this community of interest had brought us together chance remarks had led to a daily conversation and that to something verging upon friendship i had promised him that my next visit to paris i would call upon him at that time when i was able to fill my compact i was living in a cottage at fontaine blue and as the evening trains were inconvenient he asked me to spend the night in his house i've only that one spare couch said he pointing to a broad sofa in his large salon i hopefully will manage to be comfortable there it was a singular bedroom with its high walls of brown volumes but there could be no more agreeable furniture to a bookworm like myself and there is no sense so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint subtle reek which comes from an ancient book i assured him that i could desire no more charming chamber and no more congenial surroundings if the fittings are neither convenient nor conventional they're at least costly said he looking around at his shelves i've expended nearly a quarter of a million of money upon these objects which surround you books weapons gems carvings tapestries images there's hardly a thing here which is not its history and it's generally one worth telling he was seated as he spoke at one side of the open fireplace an eye at the other his reading table was on his right and a strong lamp above it ringed it with a very vivid circle of golden light a half-rolled palimpsus lay in the center and a rounded were many quaint articles of bric-a-brac one of these was a large funnel such as used for filling wine casks it appeared to be made of black wood and to be rimmed with a discolored brass that's a curious thing i remarked what's the history of that ah said he it is the very question which i've had occasion to ask myself i would give a good deal to know take it in your hands and examine it i did so and found that what i had imagined to be wood was in reality leather though age had dried it into an extreme hardness it was a large funnel and might hold a court when full the brass rim encircled the wide end but the narrow was also tipped with metal what do you make of it ass stacker i should imagine that it belonged to some vinter or mulster in the middle ages said i i've seen in england leaven drinking flagans of the 17th century black jacks as they were called which were of the same color and hardness as this filler i dare say the date would be about the same said decker and no doubt also that it was used for filling a vessel with liquid if my suspicions are correct however it was a queer vinter who used it in a very singular cask which was filled do you observe nothing strange at the spout end of the funnel as i held it to the light i observed that at the spot some five inches above the brass tip the narrow neck of the leather funnel was all haggled and scored as if someone had notched it around with a blunt knife only at that point was there any roughening of the dead black surface someone has tried to cut off the neck would you call it a cut it's torn and lacerated must have taken some strength to leave these marks in such tough material whatever the instrument may have been but what do you think of it i can tell that you know more than you say decker smiled and his little eyes twinkled with knowledge have you included the psychology of dreams among your learned studies he asked i did not even know there was such a psychology my dear sir that shelf above the gem case is filled with volumes from albertus magnus onward which deal with no other subject it is a science in itself a science of charlatans the charlatan is always the pioneer from the astrologer came the astronomer from the alchemist the chemist from the mesmerist the experimental psychologist the quack of yesterday is the professor of tomorrow even such subtle and elusive things as dreams will in time be reduced to system and order when that time comes the researchers of our friends on that bookshelf yonder will no longer be the amusement of the mystic or the foundations of a science supposing that so what has the science of dreams to do with a large black brass rim funnel i will tell you you know that i have an agent who is always on the lookout for rarities and curiosities for my collection some days ago he heard of a dealer upon one of the quays who had acquired some old rubbish found in a cupboard in an ancient house at the back end of the room a thurian in the quarter latin the dining room of this old house is decorated with the coat of arms chevrons and bars rouge upon a field argent which prove upon inquiry to be the shield of nicholas to the renais a high official of king louis the 14th there can be no doubt that the other articles that covered date back to the early days of that king the inference is therefore that they were all the property of this nicholas to la renais who was as i understand the gentleman of specially concerned with the maintenance and execution of the draconic laws of that ebook what then i would ask you now to take the funnel into your hands once more to examine the upper brass rim can you make out any lettering upon it there were certainly some scratches upon it almost obliterated by time the general effect was of several letters the last of which bore some resemblance to a b you make it a b yes i do so do i in fact i have no doubt whatever that it is a b but the nobleman you mentioned would have had an r for his initial exactly that's the beauty of it he owned this curious object and yet he had someone else's initials upon it why did he do this i can't imagine can you well i might perhaps guess do you observe something drawn a little further along the rim i should say it was a crown it is undoubtedly a crown but if you examined it in good light you will convince yourself that it is not an ordinary crown it is a heraldic crown a badge of rank and it consists of an alternation of four pearls and strawberry leaves the proper badge of a marquee we may infer therefore that the person whose initials in and b was entitled to wear that coronet in this common leather filler belonged to a marquee dacker gave a peculiar smile well or to some member of the family of a marquee said he so much we have clearly gathered from this engraved rim what is all this to do with dreams i do not know whether it was from the look upon dacker's face or from some subtle suggestion in his manner but a feeling of repulsion of unreasoning horror came upon me as i looked at that gnarled old lump of leather i more than once received important information through my dreams said my companion in the didactic manner which he loved to affect i make it a rule now that i'm in doubt upon any material point to place the article in question beside me as i sleep and to hope for some enlightenment the process did not appear to be very obscure although it has not yet received the blessing of orthodox science according to my theory any object which has been intimately associated with any supreme paroxysm of human emotion whether it be joy or pain will retain a certain atmosphere or association which it is capable of communicating to a sensitive mind by a sensitive mind i do not mean an abnormal one but such a trained and educated mind as you or i possess you mean for example that if i slept beside that sword upon the wall i might dream of some bloody incident in which the very sword took part an excellent example for as a matter of fact that sword was used in that fashion by me and i saw in my sleep the death of its owner who perished in a brisk skirmish which i have been unable to identify but which occurred at the time of the wars of the frondis if you think of it some of our popular observances show that the fact has already been recognized by our ancestors although we in our wisdom have classed it among superstitions for example well the placing of the bridescape beneath the pillow in order that the sleeper may have pleasant dreams that is one of several instances which you will find said forth in a small brochure which i am myself writing upon the subject but to come back to the point i slept one night with this funnel beside me and i had a dream which certainly throws a curious light upon its use and origin what did you dream i dreamed he paused and an intent look of interest came over his massive face by chove that's well thought of said he this really will be an exceedingly interesting experiment you are yourself a psychic subject with nerves which respond readily to any impression i've never tested myself in that direction then we shall test you tonight might i ask you a very great favor when you occupy that couch tonight to sleep with this old funnel placed by the side of your pillow the request seemed to me a grotesque but i have myself in my complex nature a hunger after all which is bizarre and fantastic i'm not the faintest belief in dacker's theory nor any hope for success in any such experiment yet it amuse me that the experiment should be made dacker with a great gravity drew a small stand to the head of my settee and placed the funnel upon it then after a short conversation he wished me good night and left me i sat for some time smoking by the smoldering fire and turning over in my mind the curious incident which had occurred and the strange experience which might lie before me skeptical as i was there was something impressive in the assurance of dacker's manner and my extraordinary surroundings the huge room with the strange and often sinister objects which were hung rounded struck solemnity into my soul finally i undressed and turning out the lamp i lay down after a long tossing i fell asleep let me try to describe as accurately as i can the scene which came to me in my dreams it stands out now in my memory more clearly than anything which i've seen with my waking eyes there was a room which bore the appearance of a vault four spandrels from the corners ran up to join a sharp cup shaped roof the architecture was rough but very strong it was evidently part of a great building three men in black with curious top heavy black velvet hats sat in a line upon the red carpeted dais their faces were very solemn and sad on the left to two long-gound men with portfolios in their hands which seemed to be stuffed with papers upon the right looking toward me was a small woman with blonde hair and singular light blue eyes the eyes of a child she was past her first youth but could not be called middle-aged her figure was inclined to stoutness and her bearing was proud and confident her face was pale with serene it was a curious face comely and yet feline with a subtle suggestion of cruelty about the straight strong little mouth and chubby jaw she was draped in some sort of loose white gown beside her stood a thin eager priest who whispered in her ear and continually raised a crucifix before her eyes she turned her head and looked fixedly past the crucifix of the three men in black who were i felt her judges as i gazed upon the three men stood up and said something but i could not distinguish the words i was aware that it was the central one who was speaking they then swept out of the room followed by the two men with the papers at the same instant several rough-looking fellows and stout jerkins came bustling in and removed first the red carpet and then the boards which formed the dais so as to entirely clear the room when this screen was removed i saw some singular articles of furniture behind it one looked like a bed with wooden rollers at each end and a winch handle to regulate its length another was a wooden horse there were several other curious objects and a number of swinging cords which played over pulleys it was not unlike a modern gymnasium when the room had been cleared there appeared a new figure within the scene this was a tall thin person clad in black with a gaunt and austere face the aspect of a man made me shudder his clothes were all shining with grease and modeled with stains he bore himself with a slow and impressive dignity as if he took command of all things from the instant of his entrance in spite of his rude appearance and sort of dress it was now his business his room his to command it carried a coil of light ropes over his left forearm the lady looked him up and down with a searching glance but her expression was unchanged it was confident even defiant but it was very different with a priest his face was ghastly white and i saw the moisture glisten and run on his high sloping forehead he threw up his hands in prayer and he stooped continually to mutter frantic words in the lady's ear the man in black now advanced and taking one of the cords from his left arm he bound the woman's hands together she held them meekly toward him as he did so then he took her arm with a rough grip and led her toward the wooden horse which was a little higher than her waist onto this she was lifted and laid and with her back upon it in her face to the ceiling while the priest quivering with horror had rushed out of the room the woman's lips were moving rapidly and though i could hear nothing i knew that she was praying her feet hung down on either side of the horse and i saw that the rough violets in attendance had fastened cords to her ankles and secured the other ends to iron rings in a stone floor my heart sank within me as i saw these ominous preparations and yet i was held by the fascination of horror and i could not take my eyes from the strange spectacle a man had entered the room with a bucket of water in either hand another followed with a third bucket they were laid beside the wooden horse the second man had a wooden dipper a bowl with a straight handle in his other hand this he gave to the man in black at the same moment one of the violets approached with a dark object in his hand which even in my dream felt me with a vague feeling of familiarity it was a leavened filler with horrible energy he thrust it but i could stand no more my hair stood on in with horror i writhe i struggled i broke through the bonds of sleep and i burst with a shriek into my own life and found myself lying shivering with terror in the huge library with the moonlight flooding through the window and throwing strange silver and black traceries upon the opposite wall oh what a blessed relief to feel that i was back in the 19th century back out of that medieval vault into a world where men had human hearts within their bosoms i sat up on my couch trembling in every limb my mind divided between thankfulness and horror to think that such things were ever done that they could be done without god striking the villain's dead was it all a fantasy or did it really stand for something which had happened in the black cruel days of the world's history i sank my throbbing head upon my shaking hands and then suddenly my heart seemed to stand still in my bosom and i could not even scream so great was my terror something was advancing toward me through the darkness of the room it is a horror coming upon a horror which breaks a man's spirit i could not reason i could not pray i could only sit like a frozen image and glare at the dark figure which was coming down the great room and then it moved out into the white lane of moonlight it was dacker and his face showed that he was as frightened as myself was that you for god's sake what's the matter he asked in a husky voice dacker i'm glad to see you i've been down into hell it was dreadful then it was you who screamed i dare say it was it rang through the house the sermons were all terrified he struck a match and let the lamp i think we may get the fire to burn up again he added throwing some logs upon the embers good god my dear chap how white you are you look as if you had seen a ghost so i have several ghosts the leather funnel has acted then i wouldn't sleep in the infernal thing again for all the money you could offer me dacker chuckled i expected that you would have a lively night of it said he you took it out of me in return for that scream of yours wasn't a very pleasant sound at two in the morning i suppose from what you say that you've seen the whole dreadful business what dreadful business the torture of the water the extraordinary question as it was called in the genial days of the roe soli did you stand it out to the end no thank god i woke before it really began it's just as well for you i held out to the third bucket well it's an old story they're all in their graves now anyhow so what does it matter how they got there i suppose that you have no idea what it was that you have seen the torture of some criminal she must have been a terrible mal factor indeed if her crimes are in proportion to her penalty well we have that small consolation said dacker wrapping his dressing gown round him and crouching closer to the fire they were in proportion to her penalty that is to say if i'm correct in the lady's identity how could you possibly know her identity for answer dacker took down an old vellum covered volume from the shelf just listen to this said he it is in the french of the 17th century but i will give a rough translation as i go you will judge for yourself whether i've solved the riddle or not the prisoner was brought before the grand chamber and tornado of parliament sitting as a court of justice charged with the murder of master drew dobry her father number two brothers missus dobry one being civil lieutenant and the other council of parliament in person it seemed hard to believe that she had really done such wicked deeds for she was of a mild appearance at a short stature with fair skin and blue eyes yet the court having found her guilty condemned her to the ordinary and to the extraordinary question in order that she might be forced to name her accomplices after which she would be carried in a cart to the plastic we have and there to have her head cut off her body being afterwards burned under ashes scattered to the winds the date of this entry is july 16th 1676 it is interesting so i have been not convincing how do you prove the two women to be the same i'm coming to that the narrative goes on the tale of the woman's behavior when questioned when the executioner approached her she recognized him by the cords which he held in his hands and she at once held out her own hands to him looking at him from head to foot without uttering a word how's that yes it was so she gazed without wincing upon the wooden horse and rings which had twisted so many limbs and caused so many shrieks of agony when her eyes fell upon the three pails of water which were all ready for her she said with a smile all that water has been brought here for the purpose of drowning me once here you have no idea i trust of making a person of my small stature swallow it all shall i read the details of the torture no for heaven's sake don't here is a sentence which must surely show you that what is here recorded is the very scene which you have gazed upon tonight the good abbey pyro unable to contemplate the agonies which were suffered by his penitent had hurried from the room does that convince you it does entirely there can be no question that is indeed the same event but who then is this lady whose appearance was so attractive and whose end is so horrible for answer dacker came across to me and placed the small lamp upon the table which stood by my bed lifting up the ill omen filler he turned the brass rim so that the light fell full upon it seen in this way the engraving seemed clear that on the night before we've already agreed that this is the badge of a marquis or of a marquis said he we have also settled that the last letter is b it is undoubtedly so i now suggest to you that the other letters from left to right are m m a small d a a small d and a final b yes i'm sure that you're right i can make out the two small d's quite plainly what i've read to you tonight said dacker is the official record of the trial of marie madeline dobry marquise de brunville one of those famous prisoners and murderers of all time i sat in silence overwhelmed by the extraordinary nature of the incident and at the completeness of the proof which dacker had exposed its real meaning in a vague way i remembered some details of the woman's career her unbridled debauchery the cold-blooded and protracted torture of her sick father the murder of her brothers for motives of petty gain i recollected also that the bravery of her end had done something to atone for the horror of her life and that all paris had sympathized with her last moments and blessed her as a martyr within a few days of time when they equipped her as a murderous one objection and one only occurred to my mind how come her initials in her badge of rank upon the filler surely they did not carry their medieval homage to the nobility to the point of decorating instruments of torture with their titles i was puzzled with the same point said dacker but it admits of a simple explanation the case excited extraordinary interest at the time and nothing could be more natural than that la renais the head of the police should retain his filler as a grim souvenir it was not often that the mochi and s of france underwent the extraordinary question that he should engrave her initials upon it for the information of others was surely a very ordinary proceeding upon his part and this i asked pointing to the marks upon the leather neck she was a cruel tigress said dacker as he turned away i think it is evident that like other tigresses her teeth were both strong and sharp end of the leather funnel by arthur conan doyl recording by dominic moor tales of terror and mystery by sir arthur conan doyl the new catechum this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org recording by dominic moor tales of terror and mystery by arthur conan doyl the new catechum look here burger said kennedy i do wish that you would confide in me the two famous students of roman remains sat together in kennedy's comfortable room overlooking the torso the night was cold and they had both pulled up their chairs to the unsatisfactory italian stove which threw out a zone of stuffiness rather than a warmth outside under the bright winter stars lay the modern room the long double chain of the electric lamps the brilliantly lighted cafes the rushing carriages and the dense throng upon the footpaths but inside in the sumptuous chamber of the rich young english archaeologist there was only old room to be seen cracked and time-worn freezes hung from the walls gray old busts of senators and soldiers with their fighting heads and their hard cruel faces peered out from the corners on the center table amidst a litter of inscriptions fragments and ornaments there stood the famous reconstruction by kennedy of the baths of carcala which excited such interest and admiration when it was exhibited in berlin emphore hung from the ceiling and the litter of curiosities strewed the rich red turkey carpet and of them all there was not one which was not of the most unimpeachable authenticity and of the utmost rarity and value for kennedy though little more than 30 had a european reputation in this particular branch of research and was moreover provided with that long purse which either proves to be a fatal handicap to the students energies or if his mind is still true to its purpose gives him enormous advantage in the race for fame kennedy had often been seduced by whim and pleasure from his studies but his mind was an incisive one capable of long and concentrated efforts which ended in sharp reactions of sensuous langer his handsome face with its high white forehead its aggressive nose and its somewhat loose and sensual mouth was a fair index of the compromise between strength and weakness in his nature of a very different type was his companion julius burger he came of a curious blend a german father and an italian mother with a robust quality of the north mingling strangely with the softer graces of the south blue two tonic eyes lightened his sunbrown face and above them rose a square massive forehead with a fringe of close yellow curls lying around it his strong firm jaw was clean shaven and his companion had frequently remarked how much it suggested those old roman bus which peered out from the shadows in the corner of the chamber under its bluff german strength there lay always a suggestion of italian subtlety but the smile was so honest and the eyes so frank that one understood that this was only an indication of his ancestry with no actual bearing upon his character in age and in reputation he was on the same level as his english companion but his life and his work had both been far more arduous 12 years before he had come as a poor student to roam and had lived ever since upon some small endowment for research which had been awarded to him by the university of bonne painfully slowly and doggedly with extraordinary tenacity and single-mindedness he'd climbed from rung to rung with a ladder of fame until now he was a member of the berlin academy and there was every reason to believe that he should shortly be promoted to the chair of the greatest of german universities with the singleness of purpose which had brought him to the same high level as the rich and brilliant englishman had caused him and everything outside their work to stand infinitely below him he had never found a pause in his studies in which to cultivate the social graces it was only when he spoke of his own subject that his face was filled with life and soul at other times he was silent and embarrassed too conscious of his own limitations and larger subjects and impatient of the small talk which is the conventional refuge of those who have no thoughts to express and yet for some years there had been an acquaintance which appeared to be slowly ripening into a friendship between these two very different rivals the base and origin of this lay and the fact that in their own studies each was the only one of younger men who had knowledge and enthusiasm enough to properly appreciate the other their common interests and pursuits had brought them together and each had been attracted by the other's knowledge and then gradually something had been added to this kennedy had been amused by the frankness and simplicity of his arrival while burger in turn had been fascinated by the brilliancy and vivacity which had made kennedy such a favorite in roman society i say had because just at that moment the young englishman was somewhat under a cloud a love affair the details of which had never quite come out had indicated a heartlessness and callousness upon his part which shocked many of his friends but in the bachelor circles of students and artists in which he preferred to move there is no very rigid code of honor in such a matters and though a head might be shaken or a pair of shoulders shrugged over the flight of two in the return of one the general sentiment was probably one of curiosity and perhaps of envy rather than of reprobation look here burger said kennedy looking hard at the placid face of his companion i do wish you would confide in me as he spoke he waved his hand in the direction of a rug which lay upon the floor on the rug stood a long shallow fruit basket of the light wicker work which is used in campania and this was heaped with the litter of objects inscribed tiles broken inscriptions inscriptions cracked mosaics torn pepper eye rusty metal ornaments which to the uninitiated might have seemed to have come straight from a dustman's bin but which a specialist would have speedily recognized as unique of their kind the pile of odds and ends in that flat wicker work basket supplied exactly one of those missing links of social development which are of such interest to the student it was the german who had brought them in and the englishmen's eyes were hungry as he looked at them i won't interfere with your treasure trove but i should very much like to hear about it he continued while burger very deliberately lit a cigar it is evidently a discovery of the first importance these inscriptions will make a sensation throughout europe for everyone here there are a million there said the german there are so many that a dozen savants might spend a lifetime over them and build up a reputation as solid as the castle of st angelo kennedy sat thinking with his fine forehead wrinkled and his fingers playing with his long fair mustache you have given yourself away burger said he at last your words can only apply to one thing you have discovered a new catacomb i had no doubt that you would already come to that conclusion from an examination of these objects well they certainly appeared to indicate it but your last remarks make it certain there is no place except a catacomb which would contain so vast a store of relics as you describe quite so there's no mystery about that i have discovered a new catacomb where ah that is my secret my dear kennedy suffice it that it is so situated that there is not one chance in a million of anyone else coming upon it its date is different from that of any known catacomb and it has been reserved for the burial of the highest christians so that the remains and the relics are quite different from anything which has ever been seen before if i was not aware of your knowledge and of your energy my friend i would not hesitate under the pledge of secrecy to tell you everything about it but as it is i think that i must certainly prepare for my report of the matter before i expose myself to such formidable competition kennedy loved his subject the love which was almost a mania a love which had held him true to it amidst all the distractions which come into a wealthy and dissipated young man he had ambition but his ambition was secondary to his more abstract joy and interest in everything which concerned the old life and the history of the city he yearned to see his new underworld which his companion had discovered look here burger said he earnestly i assure you that you can trust me most implicitly in this matter nothing would induce me to put pen to paper about anything which i see until i have your express permission i quite understand your feeling and i think it is most natural but you have really nothing whatsoever to fear for me on the other hand if you don't tell me i shall make a systematic search and i shall discover it in that case of course i should make what use i liked of it since i would be under no obligation to you burger smiled thoughtfully over his cigar i've noticed friend kennedy said he that when i want information over any point you are not always so ready to supply it when did you ever ask me for anything that i did not tell you you remember for example my giving you the material for your paper about the temple of the vestals ah well that was not a matter of such importance if i were to question you upon some new intimate thing would you give me an answer i wonder this new catacomb is a very intimate thing to me and i should certainly expect some sign of confidence in return what are you driving at i cannot imagine so the englishman but if you mean that you will answer my question about the catacomb if i answer any question which you have put to me i can assure you that i will certainly do so well then said burger leading luxuriously back in his seti and puffing a blue tree of cigar smoke into the air tell me all about your relations with miss mary saunderson kennedy sprang up in his chair and glared angrily at the impassive companion what the devil do you mean he cried what sort of a question is this you may mean it as a joke but you never made a worse one no i don't mean it as a joke said burger simply i'm really rather interested in the details of the matter i don't know much about the world of women and social life and that sort of thing in such an incident has the fascination of the unknown for me i know you and i know her by sight i'd even spoken to her once or twice i should very much like to hear from your own lips exactly what it was which occurred between you i won't tell you a word that's all right it was only my whim to see if you would give up a secret as easily as you expected me to give up my secret of the new catacomb you wouldn't and i didn't expect you to but why should you expect otherwise of me there's st john's clock striking 10 it is quite time that i was going home home no wait a bit burger said kennedy this is really a ridiculous caprice of yours to wish to know about an old love affair which is burned out months ago you know we look upon a man who kisses and tells is the greatest coward in villain possible certainly said the german gathering up his basket of curiosities when he tells anything about a girl which is previously unknown he must be so but in this case as you must be aware it was a public matter which was the common talk of rome so you are not really doing miss mary saunderson any injury by discussing her case with me but still i respect your scruples so good night wait a bit burger said kennedy laying his hand upon the other's arm i'm very keen upon this catacomb business and i can't let it drop quite so easily would you mind asking me something else in return something not quite so eccentric this time no no you have refused and there is an end of it said burger with his basket on his arm no doubt you are quite right not to answer and no doubt i'm quite right also and so again my dear kennedy good night the englishman watched burger across the room and he had his hand on the handle of the door before his host sprang up with the air of a man who was making the best of which cannot be helped hold on old fellow city i think you are behaving in the most ridiculous fashion but still if this is your condition i suppose that i must submit to it i hate saying anything about a girl but as you know it's all over rome i don't suppose i can't tell you anything which you do not already know what was it you wanted to know the german came back to the stove and laying down his basket he sank into his chair once more may i have another cigar city thank you very much i never smoke when i work but i enjoyed chat much more when i'm under the influence of tobacco now as regards this young lady with whom you had this little adventure what in the world has become of her she's at home with her own people oh really in england yes what part of england london no twickenham you must excuse my curiosity my dear kennedy and you must put it down to my ignorance of the world no doubt it is quite a simple thing to persuade a young lady to go off with you for three weeks or so and then to hand her over to her own family at what did you call the place twickenham quite so at twickenham but it is something so entirely outside my own experience then i cannot even imagine how you said about it for example if you'd love this girl your love could not hardly disappear in three weeks so i presume that you could not have loved her at all but if you do not love her why should you make this great scandal which has damaged you and ruined her kennedy looked moodley into the red eye of the stove there's a logical way of looking at it certainly said he love is a big word and it represents a good many different shades of feeling i liked her and well you say you've seen her you know how charming she could look but still i'm willing to admit looking back that i could never have really loved her then my dear kennedy why did you do it the adventure of the thing had a great deal to do with it what you are so fond of adventures where would the variety of life be without them it was for an adventure that i first began to pay my attentions to her i've chased a good deal of game in my time but there's no chase like that of a pretty woman there was a pecan difficulty of it also for as she was the companion of lady emily rude it was almost impossible to see her alone on the top of all the other obstacles which attracted me i learned from her own lips very early in the proceedings that she was engaged my god to whom she mentioned no names i do not think that anyone knows that so that made the adventure more alluring did it well it did certainly give a spice to it don't you think so i tell you that i'm very ignorant about these things my dear fellow you can remember that the apple you stole from your neighbor's tree was always sweeter than that which fell from your own and then i found that she cared for me what at once no no it took about three months of sapping and mining but at last i won her over she understood that my judicial separation from my wife made it impossible for me to do the right thing by her but she came all the same and we had a delightful time as long as it lasted but how about the other man kennedy shrugged his shoulders i suppose it is the survival of the fittest said he if he had been the better man she would not have deserted him let's drop the subject i've had enough of it only one other thing how did you get rid of her in three weeks well we'd both cool down a bit you understand she absolutely refused under any circumstances to come back to face the people she'd known in rome now of course rome is necessary to me and i had already been pining to be back at my work so there was one obvious case of separation then again her old father turned up at the hotel in london and there was a scene and the whole thing became so unpleasant that really though i missed her dreadfully at first i was very glad to slip out of it now i rely upon you not to repeat anything of what i've said my dear kennedy i should not dream of repeating it but all that you say interests me very much for it gives me an insight into your way of looking at things which is entirely different from mine for i've seen so little of life and now you want to know about my new catacomb there's no use in my trying to describe it for you would never find it by that there's only one thing and that is for me to take you there that would be splendid then would you like to come the sooner the better i'm all impatient to see it well it's a beautiful night though a trifle cold suppose we start in an hour you must be very careful to keep the matter to ourselves if anyone saw us hunting in couples they would suspect there was something going on we can't be too cautious of kennedy is it far some miles not too far to walk oh no we can walk there easily we had better do so then a cab man's suspicions would be aroused if he dropped us both at some lonely spot in the dead of the night quite so i think it would be best for us to meet at the gate of the apian way at midnight i must go back to my lodgings for the matches and candles and things i'll write burger i think it is very kind of you to let me into this secret and i promise you that i will write nothing about it until you have published your report goodbye for the present you will find me at the gate at 12 the cold clear air was filled with the musical chimes from the city of clocks as a burger wrapped in an italian overcoat with a lantern hanging from his hand walked up to the rendezvous kennedy stepped out of the shadow to meet him you were ardent and work as well as in love said the german laughing yes i've been waiting here for nearly half an hour i hope you left no clue as to where you were going not such a fool by jove i'm chilled to the bone come on burger let us warm ourselves by a spurt of hard walking their footsteps sounded loud and crisp upon the rough stone paving of the disappointing road which is all that is left of the most famous highway of the world a peasant or two going home from the wine shop and a few carts of country produce coming up to roam with the only things which they met they swung along with the huge tombs looming up to the darkness upon each side of them until they had come as far as the catacomb of st calistus and saw against a rising moon a great circular bastion of cecilia metella in front of them then burger stopped with his hand to his side your legs are longer than mine and you were more accustomed to walking said he laughing i think that the place where we turn off is somewhere here yes this is it around the corner of the trittoria now it's a very narrow path so perhaps i'd better go in front and you can follow he had lit his lantern and by its light they were unable to follow the narrow and devious track which wound across the marshes of the campania the great aqueduct of old roam lay like a monstrous caterpillar across the moonlit landscape and their road led them under one of its huge arches in the past of the circle of crumbling bricks which marks the old arena at last burger stopped at a solitary wooden cowhouse and he drew a key from his pocket surely your catacomb is not inside a house cried kennedy the entrance to it is that this is just a safeguard which we have against anyone else discovering it as the proprietor know of it not he he had found one or two objects which made me almost certain that his house was built on the entrance to such a place so i rented it from him it did my excavations for myself come in and shut the door behind you it was a long empty building with the majors of cows along one wall burger put his lantern down on the ground and shaded its light in all directions save one by draping his overcoat around it it might excite remark if anyone saw a light in this lonely place said he just helped me to move this boarding the flooring was loose in the corner and plank by plank the two savants raised it and leaned it against the wall below there was a square aperture of a stair of old stone steps which led away down into the bowels of the earth be careful cried burger as kennedy and his impatience hurry down them it is a perfect rabbits worn below and if you were once to lose your way there the chances would be a hundred to one against you ever coming out again wait until i bring the light how did you find your own way if it is so complicated i had some very narrow escapes at first but i have gradually learned to go about there is a certain system to it but it is one which a lost man if you were in the dark could not possibly find out even now i always spin out a ball of string behind me when i'm going forward to the catacomb you can see for yourself that it is difficult but for every one of these passages divides and subdivides a dozen times before you go a hundred yards they had descended some 20 feet from the level of the buyer and they were standing now in a square chamber cut out of the soft tuffa the lantern cast a flickering light bright below the dim above over the cracked brown walls in every direction were the black openings of passages which radiated from this common center i want you to follow me closely my friend said burger do not loiter to look at anything upon the way for the place to which i will take you contains all that you can see and more it will save time for us to go there direct he led the way down one of the quarters and the Englishman followed closely at his heels every now and then the passage bifurcated the burger was evidently following some secret marks of his own for he neither stopped nor hesitated everywhere along the walls packed like the births upon an immigrant ship lay the Christians of old Rome the yellow light flickered over the shriveled features of the mummies and gleamed upon rounded skulls and long white arm bones crossed over fleshless chests and everywhere as he passed Kennedy looked with wistful eyes upon inscriptions funeral vessels pictures vestments utensils all lying as pious hands had placed them so many centuries ago it was apparent to him even in these hurried passing glances this was the earliest and finest of the catacombs containing such a storehouse of roman remains as had never before come at one time under the observation of a student what would happen if the light went out he asked as they hurried onwards i have a spare candle in a box of matches in my pocket by the way kennedy have you any matches no you'd better give me some oh that's all right there's no chance of our separating how far are we going it seems to me we've walked at least a quarter of a mile more than that i think there's really no limit to the tombs at least i've never been able to find any this is a very difficult place so i think that i will use our ball of string he fastened one end of it to a projecting stone and he carried the coil in the breast of his pocket paying it out as he advanced kennedy saw that it was no unnecessary precaution for the passages had become more complex and tortuous than ever with a perfect network of intersecting corridors but these all ended in one large circular hall with a square pedestal of tufa topped the slab of marble at one end of it by jove cried kennedy in an ecstasy as burger swung his lantern over the marble it is a christian altar probably the first one in existence here is the little consecration cross cut upon the corner of it no doubt the circular space was used as a church precisely said burger but had more time i should like to show you all the bodies which are buried in these niches upon the walls for they are the early popes and bishops of the church with their mitres their croziers and full canonicals go over to that one and look at it kennedy went across and stared at the ghastly head which lay loosely on the shredded and moldering mitre this is most interesting city and his voice seemed to boom against the concave vault as far as my experience goes it is unique bring the lantern over burger i want to see them all but the german had strolled away and was standing in the middle of a yellow circle of light at the other side of the hall do you know how many wrong turnings there are between this and the stairs he asked there are over two thousand no doubt it was one of the means of protection which the christians adopted the odds are two thousand to one against a man getting out even if he had the light but if he were in the dark it would of course be far more difficult so i should think and the darkness is something dreadful i tried it once for an experiment let us try it again he stooped the lantern and in an instant it was as if an invisible hand was squeezed tightly over each of kennedy's eyes never had he known what such darkness was it seemed to press upon him and to smother him it was a solid obstacle against which the body shrank from advancing he put his hands out to push it back from him that will do burger said he let's have the light again but his companion began to laugh and in that circular room the sounds seemed to come from every side at once you seem uneasy friend kennedy said he go on man light the candle said kennedy impatiently it's very strange kennedy but i could not in the least tell by the sound in which direction you stand could you tell where i am no you seem to be on every side of me if it were not for this string which i hold in my hand i should not have a notion of which way to go i dare say not strike a light man and have it into this nonsense well kennedy there are two things which i understand that you are very fond of the one is an adventure and the other is an obstacle to surmount the adventure must be the finding of your way out of this catacomb the obstacle will be the darkness and the two thousand wrong terms which make the way very difficult to find but you need not hurry for you have plenty of time and when you halt for a rest now and then i should like you just to think of miss mary saunderson and whether you treated her quite fairly you devil what do you mean roared kennedy he was running about in little circles and clasping at the solid blackness with both hands goodbye said the mocking voice and it was already at some distance i really do not think kennedy even by your own showing that you did the right thing by that girl there was only one little thing which you appeared to not know and i can supply it miss saunderson was engaged to a poor ungainly devil of a student and his name was julius burger there was a rustle somewhere the vague sound of a foot striking a stone and then there fell silence upon that old christian church a stagnant heavy silence which closed round kennedy and shut him in like water around a drowning man some two months afterward the following paragraph made the round of the european press one of the most interesting discoveries of recent years is that of the new catacomb in rome which lies some distance to the east of the well-known vaults of st calyxtus the finding of this important burial place which is exceedingly rich and most interesting early christian remains is due to the energy and sagacity of dr julius burger the young german specialist who is rapidly taking the first place as an authority upon ancient rome although the first to publish his discovery it appears that a less fortunate adventurer had anticipated dr burger some months ago mr kennedy the well-known english student disappeared suddenly from his rooms in the course so and it was conjectured that his association with a recent scandal had driven him to leave rome it appears now that he had in reality fallen a victim to that fervid love of archaeology which had raised him to a distinguished place among living scholars his body was discovered in the heart of the new catacomb and it was evident from the condition of his feet and boots that he had trapped for days through the torturous quarters which make these subterranean tombs so dangerous to explorers the deceased gentleman had with inexplicable rashness made his way into this labyrinth without as far as can be discovered taking with him either candles or matches so that his sad fate was the natural result of his own temerity what makes the matter more painful is that dr julius burger was an intimate friend of the deceased his joy at the extraordinary find which he had been so fortunate as to make has been greatly marred by the terrible fate of his comrade and fellow worker end of the new catacomb by arthur conan doil recording by dominick more the case of lady sanix by arthur conan doil this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org tales of terror and mystery by arthur conan doil the case of lady sanix the relations between douglas stone and the notorious lady sanix were very well known both among the fashionable circles of which she was a brilliant member and the scientific bodies which numbered him among their most illustrious conferers there was naturally therefore a very widespread interest when it was announced one morning that the lady had absolutely and forever taken the veil and that the world would see her no more when at the very tail of this rumor there came the assurance that the celebrated operating surgeon the man of steel nerves had been found in the morning by his valet seated on one side of his bed smiling pleasantly upon the universe with both legs jammed into one side of his breeches and his great brain about as valuable as a cap full of porridge the matter was strong enough to give quite a little thrill of interest to folk who had never hoped that their jaded nerves were capable of such a sensation douglas stone in his prime was one of the most remarkable men in england indeed he could hardly be said to have ever reached his prime for he was but nine and thirty at the time of this little incident those who knew him best were aware that famous as he was as a surgeon he might have succeeded with even greater rapidity in any of a dozen lines of life he could have cut his way to fame as a soldier struggled to it as an explorer bullied for it in the courts or built it out of stone and iron as an engineer he was born to be great for he could plan what another man dare not do and he could do what another man dare not plan in surgery none could follow him his nerve his judgment his intuition were things apart again and again his knife cut away death but grazed the very springs of life in doing it until his assistants were as white as the patient his energy his audacity his full-blooded self-confidence does not the memory of them still linger in the south of moral bone road and the north of oxford street his vices were as magnificent as his virtues and infinitely more picturesque large as was his income and it was the third largest of all professional men in london it was far beneath the luxury of his living deep in his complex nature lay a rich vein of sensualism at the sport of which he placed all the prizes of his life the eye the ear the touch the palate all were his masters the bouquet of old vintages the scent of rare exotics the curves and tints of the daintiest potteries of europe it was to these that the quick running stream of gold was transformed and then came his sudden mad passion for lady sanix when a single interview with two challenging glances and a whispered word set him ablaze she was the loveliest woman in london and the only one to him he was one of the handsomest men in london but not the only one to her she had a liking for new experiences and was gracious to most men who wooed her it may have been cause or it may have been effect that lord sanix looked fifty though he was but six and thirty he was a quiet silent neutral tinted man this lord with thin lips and heavy eyelids much given to gardening and full of home-like habits he had at one time been fond of acting had even rented a theater in london and on its boards had first seen miss marion dawson to whom he had offered his hand his title and the third of a county since his marriage his early hobby had become distasteful to him even in private theatricals it was no longer possible to persuade him to exercise the talent which he had often showed that he possessed he was happier with a spud and a watering can among his orchids and chrysanthemums it was quite an interesting problem whether he was absolutely devoid of sense or miserably wanting in spirit did he know his lady's ways and condone them or was he a mere blind doting fool it was a point to be discussed over the tea cups in snug little drawing rooms or with the aid of a cigar in the bow windows of clubs bitter and plain were the comments among men upon his conduct there was but one who had a good word to say for him and he was the most silent member in the smoking room he had seen him break in a horse at the university and it seemed to have left an impression upon his mind but when douglas stone became the favorite all doubts as to lord sanix's knowledge or ignorance were set forever at rest there was no sub-diffuse about stone in his high-handed impetuous fashion he set all caution and discretion at defiance the scandal became notorious a learned body intimated that his name had been struck from the list of its vice presidents two friends implored him to consider his professional credit he cursed them all three and spent forty guineas on a bangle to take with him to the lady he was at her house every evening and she drove in his carriage in the afternoons there was not an attempt on either side to conceal their relations but there came at last a little incident to interrupt them it was a dismal winter's night very cold and gusty with the wind whooping in the chimneys and blustering against the windowpains a thin spatter of rain tinkled on the glass with each fresh sow of the gale drowning for the instant the dull gurgle and drip from the eaves douglas stone had finished his dinner and sat by his fire in the study a glass of rich port upon the malachite table at his elbow as he raised it to his lips he held it up against the lampshade and watched with the eye of a connoisseur the tiny scales of bee's wing which floated in its rich ruby depths the fire as it spurred it up threw fitful lights upon his bald clear-cut face with its widely opened gray eyes its thick and yet firm lips and the deep square jaw which had something roman in its strength and its animalism he smiled from time to time as he nestled back in his luxurious chair indeed he had a right to feel well pleased for against the advice of six colleagues he had performed an operation that day of which only two cases were on record and the result had been brilliant beyond all expectation no other man in london would have had the daring to plan or the skill to execute such a heroic measure but he had promised lady sanix to see her that evening and it was already half past eight his hand was outstretched to the bell to order the carriage when he heard the dull thud of the knocker an instant later there was the shuffling of feet in the hall and the sharp closing of a door a patient to see you sir in the consulting room said the butler about himself no sir i think he wants you to go out it is too late cried douglas stone peevishly i won't go this is his card sir the butler presented it upon the gold salver which had been given to his master by the wife of a prime minister hamil ali smirna hmm the fellow is a turk i suppose yes sir he seems as if he came from abroad sir and he's in a terrible way tut tut i have an engagement i must go somewhere else but i'll see him show him in here pym a few moments later the butler swung open the door and ushered in a small and decrepit man who walked with a bent back and with forward push of the face and blink of the eyes which goes with extreme short sight his face was swarthy and his hair and beard of the deepest black in one hand he held a turban of white muslin striped with red in the other a small chamois leather bag good evening said douglas stone when the butler had closed the door you speak english i presume yes sir i am from asia minor but i speak english when i speak slow you wanted me to go out i understand yes sir i wanted very much that you should see my wife i could come in the morning but i have an engagement which prevents me from seeing your wife tonight the turk's answer was a singular one he pulled the string which closed the mouth of the chamois leather bag and poured a flood of gold onto the table there are 300 pounds there said he and i suppose that it will not take you an hour i have a cab ready at the door douglas stone glanced at his watch an hour would not make it too late to visit lady sanix he had been there later and the fee was an extraordinarily high one he had been pressed by his creditors lately and he could not afford to let such a chance pass he would go what is the case he asked oh it is so sad a one so sad a one you have not perhaps heard of the daggers of the almohades never ah they are eastern daggers of a great age and of a singular shape with the hilt like what you call a stirrup i am a curiosity dealer you understand and that is why i have come to england from smirna but next week i go back once more many things i brought with me and i have a few things left but among them to my sorrow is one of these daggers you will remember that i have an appointment sir said the surgeon with some irritation pray can find yourself to the necessary details you will see that it is necessary today my wife fell down in a faint in the room in which i keep my wares and she cut her lower lip upon the cursed dagger of almohades i see said douglas stone rising and you wish me to dress the wound no no it is worse than that what then these daggers are poisoned poisoned yes and there is no man east or west who can tell now what is the poison or what the cure but all that is known i know for my father was in this trade before me and we have had much to do with these poisoned weapons what are the symptoms deep sleep and death in 30 hours and you say there is no cure why then should you pay me this considerable fee no drug can cure but the knife may and how the poison is slow of absorption it remains for hours in the wound washing then might cleanse it no more than in a snake bite it is too subtle and too deadly excision of the wound then that is it if it be on the finger take the finger off so said my father always and think of where this wound is and that it is my wife it is dreadful but familiarity with such grim matters may take the finer edge from a man's sympathy to douglas stone this was already an interesting case and he brushed aside as irrelevant the feeble objections of the husband it appears to be that or nothing said he bruskly it is better to lose a lip than a life ah yes i know that you are right well well it is kismet and it must be faced i have the cab and you will come with me and do this thing douglas stone took his case of beast stories from a drawer and placed it with a roll of bandage and a compress of lint in his pocket he must waste no more time if he were to see lady sanix i am ready said he pulling on his overcoat will you take a glass of wine before you go out into this cold air his visitor shrank away with a protesting hand upraised you forget that i am a musselman and a true follower of the prophet said he but tell me what is the bottle of green glass which you have placed in your pocket it is chloroform ah that also is forbidden to us it is a spirit and we make no use of such things what you would allow your wife to go through an operation without an anesthetic ah she will feel nothing poor soul the deep sleep has already come on which is the first working of the poison and then i have given her of our smirna opium come sir for already an hour has passed as they stepped out into the darkness a sheet of rain was driven in upon their faces and the hall lamp which dangled from the arm of a marble carotid went out with a fluff him the butler pushed the heavy door to straining hard with his shoulder against the wind while the two men groped their way towards the yellow glare which showed where the cab was waiting an instant later they were rattling upon their journey is it far asked douglas stone oh no we have a very little quiet place off the euston road the surgeon pressed the spring of his repeater and listened to the little tings which told him the hour it was a quarter past nine he calculated the distances and the short time which it would take him to perform so trivial an operation he ought to reach lady senex by ten o'clock through the fogged windows he saw the blurred gas lamps dancing past with occasionally the broader glare of a shopfront the rain was pelting and rattling upon the leather and top of the carriage and the wheels swashed as they rolled through puddle and mud opposite to him the white headgear of his companion gleamed faintly through the obscurity the surgeon felt in his pockets and arranged his needles his ligatures and his safety pins that no time might be wasted when they arrived he chafed with impatience and drummed his foot upon the floor but the cab slowed down at last and pulled up in an instant douglas stone was out and the smirna merchant's toe was at his very heel you can wait said he to the driver it was a mean looking house in a narrow and sordid street the surgeon who knew his london well cast a swift glance into the shadows but there was nothing distinctive no shop no movement nothing but a double line of dull flat faced houses a double stretch of wet flagstone which gleamed in the lamp light and a double rush of water in the gutters which swirled and gurgled towards the sewer gratings the door which faced them was blotched and discolored and a faint light in the fan pane above it served to show the dust and the grime which covered it above in one of the bedroom windows there was a dull yellow glimmer the merchant knocked loudly and as he turned his dark face towards the light douglas stone could see that it was contracted with anxiety a bolt was drawn and an elderly woman with a taper stood in the doorway shielding the thin flame with her gnarled hand is all well gasped the merchant she is as you left her sir she has not spoken no she is in a deep sleep the merchant closed the door and douglas stone walked down the narrow passage glancing about him in some surprise as he did so there was no oil cloth no mat no hat rack deep gray dust and heavy festoons of cobwebs met his eyes everywhere following the old woman up the winding stair his firm footfall echoed harshly through the silent house there was no carpet the bedroom was on the second landing douglas stone followed the old nurse into it with the merchant at his heels here at least there was furniture and spare the floor was littered and the corners piled with Turkish cabinets inlaid tables coats of chain mail strange pipes and grotesque weapons a single small lamp stood upon a bracket on the wall douglas stone took it down and picking his way among the lumber walked over to a couch in the corner on which lay a woman dressed in the Turkish fashion with Yajmek and veil the lower part of the face was exposed and the surgeon saw a jagged cut which zigzagged along the border of the upper lip you will forgive the Yajmek said the Turk you know our views about women in the east but the surgeon was not thinking about the Yajmek this was no longer a woman to him it was a case he stooped and examined the wound carefully there are no signs of irritation said he we might delay the operation until local symptoms develop the husband rung his hands in uncontrollable agitation oh sir sir he cried do not trifle you do not know it is deadly i know and i give you my assurance that an operation is absolutely necessary only the knife can save her and yet i am inclined to wait said douglas stone that is enough the Turk cried angrily every minute is of importance and i cannot stand here and see my wife allowed to sink it only remains for me to give you my thanks for having come and to call in some other surgeon before it is too late douglas stone hesitated to refund that hundred pounds was no pleasant matter but of course if he left the case he must return the money and if the Turk were right and the woman died his position before a coroner might be an embarrassing one you have had personal experience of this poison he asked i have and you assure me that an operation is needful i swear it by all that i hold sacred the disfigurement will be frightful i can understand that the mouth will not be a pretty one to kiss douglas stone turned fiercely upon the man the speech was a brutal one but the Turk has his own fashion of talk and of thought and there was no time for wrangling douglas stone drew a mystery from his case opened it and felt the keen straight edge with his forefinger then he held the lamp closer to the bed two dark eyes were gazing up at him through the slit in the yashmech they were all iris and the pupil was hardly to be seen you have given her a very heavy dose of opium yes she has had a good dose he glanced again at the dark eyes which looked straight at his own they were dull and lusterless but even as he gazed a little shifting sparkle came into them and the lips quivered she is not absolutely unconscious said he would it not be well to use the knife while it will be painless the same thought had crossed the surgeon's mind he grasped the wounded lip with his forceps and with two swift cuts he took out a broad v-shaped piece the woman spraying up on the couch with a dreadful gurgling scream her covering was torn from her face it was a face that he knew in spite of that protruding upper lip and that slobber of blood it was a face that he knew she kept on putting her hand up to the gap and screaming Douglas Stone sat down at the foot of the couch with his knife and his forceps the room was whirling round and he felt something go like a ripping seam behind his ear a bystander would have said that his face was the more ghastly of the two as in a dream or as if he had been looking at something at the play he was conscious that the Turk's hair and beard lay upon the table and that Lord Sanex was leaning against the wall with his hand to his side laughing silently the screams had died away now and the dreadful head had dropped back again upon the pillow but Douglas Stone still sat motionless and Lord Sanex still chuckled quietly to himself it was really very necessary for Marion this operation said he not physically but morally you know morally Douglas Stone stooped for yards and began to play with the fringe of the coverlet his knife tinkled down upon the ground but he still held the forceps and something more I had long intended to make a little example said Lord Sanex swavly your note of Wednesday miscarried and I have it here in my pocket book I took some pains in carrying out my idea the wound by the way was from nothing more dangerous than my signet ring he glanced keenly at his silent companion and cocked the small revolver which he held in his coat pocket but Douglas Stone was still picking at the coverlet you see you have kept your appointment after all said Lord Sanex and at that Douglas Stone began to laugh he laughed long and loudly but Lord Sanex did not laugh now something like fear sharpened and hardened his features he walked from the room and he walked on tiptoe the old woman was waiting outside attend to your mistress when she awakes said Lord Sanex then he went down to the street the cab was at the door and the driver raised his hand to his hat John said Lord Sanex you will take the doctor home first he will want leading downstairs I think tell his butler that he has been taken ill at a case very good sir then you can take Lady Sanex home and how about yourself sir oh my address for the next few months will be Hotel di Roma Venice just see that the letters are sent on and tell Stevens to exhibit all the purple chrysanthemums next Monday and to wire me the result end of a case of Lady Sanex by Arthur Conan Doyle tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle the terror of Blue John Gap this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Igor T4A tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle the terror of Blue John Gap the following narrative was found among the papers of Dr. James Hardcastle who died of diocese on February 4th 1908 at 36 Upper Coventry Flats South Kensington those who knew him best while refusing to express an opinion upon this particular statement are unanimous in asserting that he was a man of a sober and scientific turn of mind absolutely devoid of imagination and most unlikely to invent any abnormal series of events the paper was contained in an envelope which was docketed a short account of the circumstances which occurred near Ms. Ellerton's farm in northwest Darbyshire in the spring of last year the envelope was sealed and on the other side was written in pencil dear Seaton it may interest and perhaps pain you to know that the incredulity with which you met my story has prevented me from ever opening my mouth upon the subject again I leave this record after my death and perhaps strangers may be found to have more confidence in me than my friend inquiry has failed to elicit who the Seaton may have been I may add that the visit of the deceased to Ellerton's farm and the general nature of the alarm there apart from his particular explanation have been absolutely established with this horde I append his account exactly as he left it it is in the form of a diary some entries in which have been expanded while a few have been erased April 17th already I feel the benefit of this wonderful upland air the farm of the Ellerton size 1420 feet above sea level so it may well be a bracing climate beyond the usual morning cough I have very little discomfort and what with the fresh milk and the homegrown mutton I have every chance of putting on weight I think Saunderson will be pleased the two Ms. Ellerton's are charmingly quaint and kind two dear little hardworking old mates who are ready to lavish all the heart which might have gone out to husband and to children upon an invalid stranger truly the old maid is the most useful person one of the reserve forces of the community they talk of the superfluous woman but what with the poor superfluous men do without her kindly presence by the way in their simplicity they very quickly let out the reason why Saunderson recommended their farm the professor rose from the ranks himself and I believe that in his youth he was not above scaring crows in these very fields it is the most lonely spot and the walks are picturesque in the extreme the farm consists of grazing land lying at the bottom of an irregular valley on each side are fantastic limestone hills formed of rock so soft that you can break it away with your hands all these countries hollow could you strike it with some gigantic hammer it would boom like a drum or possibly cave in all together and expose some huge subterranean sea a great sea there surely must be for on all sides the stream run into the mountain itself never to reappear there are gaps everywhere amid the rocks and when you pass through them you find yourself in great caverns which went down into the bowels of the earth I have a small bicycle lamp and it is a perpetual joy to me to carry it into these weird solitudes and to see the wonderful silver and black effect when I throw its light upon the stalactites which draped the lofty roofs shut off the lamp and you're in the blackest darkness turn it on and it is a scene from the arabian nights but there's one of these strange openings in the earth which has a special interest for it is the handiwork not of nature but of man I had never heard of glujan when I came to these parts it is the name given to a peculiar mineral of a beautiful purple shade which is only found at one or two places in the world it is so rare that an ordinary vase of glujan would be valued at a great price the romans with that extraordinary instinct of theirs discovered that it was to be found in this valley and sank a horizontal shaft deep into the mountain side the opening of their mine has been called glujan gap a clean cut arch in the rock the mouth all overgrown with bushes it is a goodly passage which the roman miners have cut and it intersects some of the great water worn caves so that if you enter glujan gap you would do well to mark your steps and to have a good store of candles or you may never make your way back to the daylight again I have not yet gone deeply into it but this very day I stood at the mouth of the arch tunnel and peering down into the black recesses beyond I vowed that when my health returned I would devote some holiday to exploring those mysterious depths and finding out for myself how far the roman had penetrated into the darbyshire hills strange how superstitious these countrymen are I should have thought better of young armitage for he's a man of some education and character and a fine fellow for his station in life I was standing at the glujan gap when he came across the field to me well doctor he said you're not afraid anyhow afraid I answered afraid of what of it said he with a jerk of his thumb towards the black vault of the terror that lives in the blue john cave how absurdly easy it is for a legend to arise in a lonely countryside I examined him as to the reasons for his weird belief it seems that from time to time sheep have been missing from the fields carried bodily away according to armitage that they could have wandered away of their own accord and disappeared among the mountains was an explanation to which you would not listen on one occasion a pool of blood had been found and some tufts of wool that also I pointed out could be explained in a perfectly natural way further the nights upon which sheep disappeared were invariably very dark cloudy nights with no moon this I met with the obvious retort that those were the very nights which a commonplace sheep's dealer would naturally choose for his work on one occasion a gap had been made on a wall and some of the stones scattered for considerable distance human agency again in my opinion finally armitage clinched all his arguments by telling me that he had actually heard the creature indeed that anyone could hear it who remained long enough at the gap it was a distant roaring of an immense volume I could not but smile at this knowing as I do the strange reverberations which come out of an underground water system running amid the chasms of a limestone formation my incredulity annoyed armitage so that he turned and left me with some abruptness and now comes the queer point about the whole business I was still standing near the mouth of the cave turning over in my mind the various statements of armitage and reflecting how readily they could be explained away when suddenly from the depth of the tunnel beside me there issued a most extraordinary sound how shall I describe it first of all it seemed to be a great distance away far down in the bowels of the earth secondly in spite of this suggestion of distance it was very loud lastly it was not a boom nor a crash such as one would associate with falling water or tumbling rock but it was a high wine tremulous and vibrating almost like the winning of a horse it was certainly a most remarkable experience and one which for a moment I must admit gave a new significance to armitage's words I waited by the blue john gap for half an hour or more but there was no return of the sound so at last I wondered back to the farmhouse rather mystified by what had occurred decidedly I shall explore that cavern when my strength is restored of course armitage's explanation is too absurd for discussion and yet that sound was certainly very strange it still rings in my ears as I write April 20th in the last three days I have made several expeditions to the blue john gap and have even penetrated some short distance but my bicycle lantern is so small and weak that I dare not trust myself very far I shall do the thing more systematically I have heard no sound at all and could almost believe that I had been the victim of some hallucination suggested perhaps by armitage's conversation of course the whole idea is absurd and yet I must confess that those bushes at the entrance of the cave do present an appearance as if some heavy creature had forced its way through them I begin to be keenly interested I have said nothing to the miss allergens for they are quite superstitious enough already but I have bought some candles and mean to investigate for myself I observed this morning that among the numerous tufts of sheep's wool which lay among the bushes near the cavern there was one which was smeared with blood of course my reason tells me that if sheep wander into such rocky places they are likely to injure themselves and yet somehow that splash of crimson gave me a sudden shock and for a moment I found myself shrinking back in horror from the old roman arch a fatigued breath seemed to ooze from the black depth into which I peered could it indeed be possible that some nameless thing some dreadful presence was lurking down yonder I should have been incapable of such feelings in the days of my strength but one grows more nervous and fanciful when one's health is shaken for the moment I weakened in my resolution and was ready to leave the secret of the old mine if one exists forever unsolved but tonight my interest has returned and my nerves grown more steady tomorrow I trust that I shall have gone more deeply into this matter april 22nd let me try and sit down as accurately as I can my extraordinary experience of yesterday I started in the afternoon and made my way to the blue john gap I confess that my misgivings returned as I gazed into its depth and I wished that I had brought a companion to share my exploration finally with the return of resolution I lit my candle pushed my way through the briars and descended into the rocky shaft it went down at an acute angle for some 50 feet the floor being covered with broken stone then they're extended a long straight passage cut in the solid rock I'm no geologist but the lining of this corridor was certainly of some harder material than limestone for there were points where I could actually see the tool marks which the old miners had left in their excavation as fresh as if they had been done yesterday down the strange old word corridor I stumbled my feeble flame throwing a dim circle of light around me which made the shadows beyond the more threatening and obscure finally I came to a spot where the roman tunnel opened into a water worn cavern a huge hall hung with long white icicles of lime deposit from this central chamber I could dimly perceive that the number of passages worn by the subterranean streams wound away into the depth of the earth I was standing there wondering whether I had better return or whether I dare venture farther into this dangerous labyrinth when my eyes fell upon something at my feet which strongly arrested my attention the greater part of the floor of the cavern was covered with boulders of rock or with hard incrustations of lime but at this particular point there had been a drip from the distant roof which had left a patch of soft mud in the very center of this there was a huge mark an ill-defined blotch deep broad and irregular as if a great boulder had fallen upon it no loose stone lay near however nor was there anything to account for the impression it was far too large to be caused by any possible animal and besides there was only the one and the patch of mud was of such a size that no reasonable stride could have covered it as I rose from the examination of that singular mark and then looked round into the black shadows which hemmed me in I must confess that I felt for a moment a most unpleasant sinking of my heart and that do what I could the candle trembled in my outstretched hand I soon recovered my nerve however when I reflected how absurd it was to associate so huge and shapeless a mark with the track of any known animal even an elephant could not have produced it I determined therefore that I would not be scared by vague and senseless fears from carrying out my exploration before proceeding I took good note of a curious rock formation in the wall by which I could recognize the entrance of the roman tunnel the precaution was very necessary for the great cave so far as I could see was intersected by passages having made sure of my position and reassured myself by examining my spare candles and my matches I advanced slowly over the rocky and uneven surface of the cavern and now I come to the point where I met with such sudden and desperate disaster a stream some 20 feet broad run across my path and I walked for some little distance along the bank to find a spot where I could cross dry shot finally I came to a place where a single flat boulder lay near the center which I could reach in a stride as it chanced however the rock had been cut away and made top heavy by the rush of the stream so that it tilted over as I landed on it and shot me into the ice cold water my candle went out and I found myself floundering about in utter and absolute darkness I staggered to my feet again more amused and alarmed by my adventure the candle had fallen from my hand and was lost in the stream but I had two others in my pocket so that it was of no importance I got one of them ready and drew out my box of matches to light it only then did I realize my position the box had been soaked in my fall into the river it was impossible to strike the matches a cold hand seemed to close round my heart as I realized my position the darkness was opaque and horrible it was so utter one put one's hand up to one's face as if to press off something solid I stood still and by an effort I studied myself I tried to reconstruct in my mind a map of the floor of the cavern as I had last seen it alas the bearings which had impressed themselves upon my mind were high on the wall and not to be found by touch still I remembered in a general way how the sides were situated and hoped that by groping my way along them I should at last come to the opening of the roman tunnel moving very slowly and continually striking against the rocks I set out on this desperate quest but I very soon realized how impossible it was in that black velvety darkness one lost all one's bearings in an instant before I had made a dozen paces I was utterly bewildered as to my whereabouts the rippling of the stream which was the one sound audible showed me where it lay but the moment that I left its bank I was utterly lost the idea of finding my way back in absolute darkness through that limestone labyrinth was clearly an impossible one I sat down upon a boulder and reflected upon my unfortunate plight I had not told anyone that I proposed to come to the blue john mine and it was unlikely that a search party would come after me therefore I must trust to my own resources to get clear of the danger there was only one hope and that was that the matches might dry when I fell into the river only half of me had got thoroughly wet my left shoulder had remained above the water I took the box of matches therefore and put it into my left armpit the moist air of the cavern might possibly be counteracted by the heat of my body but even so I knew that I could not hope to get a light for many hours meanwhile there was nothing for it but to wait by good luck I had slipped several biscuits into my pocket before I left the farmhouse these are now devoured and washed them down with a draft from the wretched stream which had been the cause of all my misfortunes then I felt about for a comfortable seat among the rocks and having discovered a place where I could get a support for my back I stretched out my legs and settled myself down to wait I was wretchedly damp and cold but I tried to cheer myself with a reflection that modern science prescribed open windows and walks in all weather for my disease gradually lulled by the monotonous gurgle of the stream and by the absolute darkness I sank into an uneasy slumber how long this lasted I cannot say it may have been for an hour it may have been for several suddenly I set up on my rock couch with every nerve thrilling and every sense acutely on the alert beyond all doubt I had heard a sound some sound very distinct from the gurgling of the waters it had passed but the reverberation of it still lingered in my ear was it a search party they would most certainly have shouted and vague as this sound was which had awakened me it was very distinct from the human voice I said palpitating and hardly daring to breathe there it was again and again now it had become continuous it was a tread yes surely it was the tread of some living creature but what tread it was it gave one the impression of enormous weight carried upon sponge-like feet which gave forth a muffled but ear-filling sound the darkness was as complete as ever but the tread was regular and decisive and it was coming beyond all question in my direction my skin grew cold and my hair stood an end as I listened to that steady and ponderous footfall there was some creature there and surely by the speed of its advance it was one which could see in the dark I crouched low in my rock and tried to blend myself into it the steps grew nearer still then stopped and presently I was aware of a loud lapping and gurgling the creature was drinking at the stream then again there was silence broken by a succession of long sniffs and snorts of tremendous volume and energy had it caught the scent of me my own nostrils were filled by a low fatigued odor mephetic and abominable then I heard the steps again they were on my side of the stream now the stones rattled within a few yards of where I lay hardly daring to breathe I crouched upon my rock then the steps drew away I heard the splash as it returned across the river and the sound died away into the distance in the direction from which it had come for a long time I lay upon the rock too much horrified to move I thought of the sound which I had heard coming from the depth of the cave of armadages fears of the strange impression in the mud and now came this final and absolute proof that there was indeed some inconceivable monster something utterly unearthly and dreadful which lurked in the hollow of the mountain of its nature or form I could frame no conception safe that it was both light-footed and gigantic the combat between my reason which told me that such things could not be and my senses which told me that they were raged within me as LA finally I was almost ready to pursue it myself that this experience had been part of some evil dream and that my abnormal condition might have conjured up and hallucination but there remained one final experience which removed the last possibility of doubt from my mind I had taken my matches from my armpit and felt them they seemed perfectly hard and dry stooping down into a crevice of the rocks I tried one of them to my delight it took fire at once I lit the candle and with a terrified backward glance into the obscure depth of the cavern I hurried in the direction of the roman passage as I did so I passed the patch of mud on which I had seen the huge imprint now I stood astonished before it for there were three similar imprints upon its surface enormous in size irregular in outline of a depth which indicated the ponderous weight which had left them then a great terror surged over me stooping and shading my candle with my hand I ran in a frenzy of fear to the rocky archway hastene