So far, in the room itself there had not been a sound. When the clock had struck ten, as it seemed to me, years ago, there came a rustling noise, from the direction of the bed. Feet stepped upon the floor,-moving towards where I was lying. It was, of course, now broad day, and I, presently, perceived that a figure, clad in some queer coloured garment, was standing at my side, looking down at me. It stooped, then knelt. My only covering was unceremoniously thrown from off me, so that I lay there in my nakedness. Fingers prodded me then and there, as if I had been some beast ready for the butcher"s stall. A face looked into mine, and, in front of me, were those dreadful eyes. Then, whether I was dead or living, I said to myself that this could be nothing human,-nothing fashioned in G.o.d"s image could wear such a shape as that. Fingers were pressed into my cheeks, they were thrust into my mouth, they touched my staring eyes, shut my eyelids, then opened them again, and-horror of horrors!-the blubber lips were pressed to mine-the soul of something evil entered into me in the guise of a kiss.
Then this travesty of manhood reascended to his feet, and said, whether speaking to me or to himself I could not tell,
"Dead!-dead!-as good as dead!-and better! We"ll have him buried."
He moved away from me. I heard a door open and shut, and knew that he was gone.
And he continued gone throughout the day. I had no actual knowledge of his issuing out into the street, but he must have done so, because the house appeared deserted. What had become of the dreadful creature of the night before I could not guess. My first fear was that he had left it behind him in the room with me,-it might be, as a sort of watchdog. But, as the minutes and the hours pa.s.sed, and there was still no sign or sound of anything living, I concluded that, if the thing was there, it was, possibly, as helpless as myself, and that during its owner"s absence, at any rate, I had nothing to fear from its too pressing attentions.
That, with the exception of myself, the house held nothing human, I had strong presumptive proof more than once in the course of the day. Several times, both in the morning and the afternoon, people without endeavoured to attract the attention of whoever was within. Vehicles-probably tradesmen"s carts-drew up in front, their stopping being followed by more or less a.s.siduous a.s.saults upon the knocker and the bell. But in every case their appeals remained unheeded. Whatever it was they wanted, they had to go unsatisfied away. Lying there, torpid, with nothing to do but listen, I was, possibly, struck by very little, but it did occur to me that one among the callers was more persistent than the rest.
The distant clock had just struck noon when I heard the gate open, and someone approached the front door. Since nothing but silence followed, I supposed that the occupant of the place had returned, and had chosen to do so as silently as he had gone. Presently, however, there came from the doorstep a slight but peculiar call, as if a rat was squeaking. It was repeated three times, and then there was the sound of footsteps quietly retreating, and the gate re-closing. Between one and two the caller came again; there was a repet.i.tion of the same signal,-that it was a signal I did not doubt; followed by the same retreat. About three the mysterious visitant returned. The signal was repeated, and, when there was no response, fingers tapped softly against the panels of the front door. When there was still no answer, footsteps stole softly round the side of the house, and there came the signal from the rear,- and then, again, tapping of fingers against what was, apparently, the back door. No notice being taken of these various proceedings, the footsteps returned the way they went, and, as before, the gate was closed.
Shortly after darkness had fallen this a.s.siduous caller returned, to make a fourth and more resolute attempt to call attention to his presence. From the peculiar character of his manoeuvres it seemed that he suspected that whoever was within had particular reasons for ignoring him without He went through the familiar pantomime of the three squeaky calls both at the front door and the back,-followed by the tapping of the fingers on the panels. This time, however, he also tried the window panes,-I could hear, quite distinctly, the clear, yet distinct, noise of what seemed like knuckles rapping against the windows behind. Disappointed there, he renewed his efforts at the front. The curiously quiet footsteps came round the house, to pause before the window of the room in which I lay,-and then something singular occurred.
While I waited for the tapping, there came, instead, the sound of someone or something, scrambling on to the window-sill,-as if some creature, unable to reach the window from the ground, was endeavouring to gain the vantage of the sill. Some ungainly creature, unskilled in surmounting such an obstacle as a perpendicular brick wall. There was the noise of what seemed to be the scratching of claws, as if it experienced considerable difficulty in obtaining a hold on the unyielding surface. What kind of creature it was I could not think,-I was astonished to find that it was a creature at all. I had taken it for granted that the persevering visitor was either a woman or a man. If, however, as now seemed likely, it was some sort of animal, the fact explained the squeaking sounds,-though what, except a rat, did squeak like that was more than I could say-and the absence of any knocking or ringing.
Whatever it was, it had gained the summit of its desires,-the window-sill. It panted as if its efforts at climbing had made it short of breath. Then began the tapping. In the light of my new discovery, I perceived, clearly enough, that the tapping was hardly that which was likely to be the product of human fingers,- it was sharp and definite, rather resembling the striking of the point of a nail against the gla.s.s. It was not loud, but in time- it continued with much persistency-it became plainly vicious. It was accompanied by what I can only describe as the most extraordinary noises. There were squeaks, growing angrier and shriller as the minutes pa.s.sed; what seemed like gaspings for breath; and a peculiar buzzing sound like, yet unlike, the purring of a cat.
The creature"s resentment at its want of success in attracting attention was unmistakable. The tapping became like the clattering of hailstones; it kept up a continuous noise with its cries and pantings; there was the sound as of some large body being rubbed against the gla.s.s, as if it were extending itself against the window, and endeavouring, by force of pressure, to gain an entrance through the pane. So violent did its contortions become that I momentarily antic.i.p.ated the yielding of the gla.s.s, and the excited a.s.sailant coming crashing through. Considerably to my relief the window proved more impregnable than seemed at one time likely. The stolid resistance proved, in the end, to be too much either for its endurance or its patience. Just as I was looking for some fresh manifestation of fury, it seemed rather to tumble than to spring off the sill; then came, once more, the same sound of quietly retreating footsteps; and what, under the circ.u.mstances, seemed odder still, the same closing of the gate.
During the two or three hours which immediately ensued nothing happened at all out of the way,-and then took place the most surprising incident of all. The clock had struck ten some time before. Since before the striking of the hour nothing and no one had pa.s.sed along what was evidently the little frequented road in front of that uncanny house. On a sudden two sounds broke the stillness without,-of someone running, and of cries. Judging from his hurrying steps someone seemed to be flying for his life,-to the accompaniment of curious cries. It was only when the runner reached the front of the house that, in the cries, I recognised the squeaks of the persistent caller. I imagined that he had returned, as before, alone, to renew his attacks upon the window, -until it was made plain, as it quickly was, that, with him, was some sort of a companion. Immediately there arose, from without, the noise of battle. Two creatures, whose cries were, to me, of so unusual a character, that I found it impossible to even guess at their ident.i.ty, seemed to be waging war to the knife upon the doorstep. After a minute or two of furious contention, victory seemed to rest with one of the combatants, for the other fled, squeaking as with pain. While I listened, with strained attention, for the next episode in this queer drama, expecting that now would come another a.s.sault upon the window, to my unbounded surprise I heard a key thrust in the keyhole, the lock turned, and the front door thrown open with a furious bang. It was closed as loudly as it was opened. Then the door of the room in which I was, was dashed open, with the same display of excitement, and of clamour, footsteps came hurrying in, the door was slammed to with a force which shook the house to its foundations, there was a rustling as of bed-clothes, the brilliant illumination of the night before, and a voice, which I had only too good reason to remember said,
"Stand up."
I stood up, automatically, at the word of command, facing towards the bed.
There, between the sheets, with his head resting on his hand, in the att.i.tude in which I had seen him last, was the being I had made acquaintance with under circ.u.mstances which I was never likely to forget,-the same, yet not the same.
CHAPTER V
AN INSTRUCTION TO COMMIT BURGLARY
That the man in the bed was the one whom, to my cost, I had suffered myself to stumble on the night before, there could, of course, not be the faintest doubt. And yet, directly I saw him, I recognised that some astonishing alteration had taken place in his appearance. To begin with, he seemed younger,-the decrepitude of age had given place to something very like the fire of youth. His features had undergone some subtle change. His nose, for instance, was not by any means so grotesque; its beak-like quality was less conspicuous. The most part of his wrinkles had disappeared, as if by magic. And, though his skin was still as yellow as saffron, his contours had rounded,-he had even come into possession of a modest allowance of chin. But the most astounding novelty was that about the face there was something which was essentially feminine; so feminine, indeed, that I wondered if I could by any possibility have blundered, and mistaken a woman for a man; some ghoulish example of her s.e.x, who had so yielded to her depraved instincts as to have become nothing but a ghastly reminiscence of womanhood.
The effect of the changes which had come about in his appearance- for, after all, I told myself that it was impossible that I could have been such a simpleton as to have been mistaken on such a question as gender-was heightened by the self-evident fact that, very recently, he had been engaged in some pitched battle; some hand to hand, and, probably, discreditable encounter, from which he had borne away uncomfortable proofs of his opponent"s prowess. His antagonist could hardly have been a chivalrous fighter, for his countenance was marked by a dozen different scratches which seemed to suggest that the weapons used had been someone"s finger- nails. It was, perhaps, because the heat of the battle was still in his veins that he was in such a state of excitement. He seemed to be almost overwhelmed by the strength of his own feelings. His eyes seemed literally to flame with fire. The muscles of his face were working as if they were wholly beyond his own control. When he spoke his accent was markedly foreign; the words rushed from his lips in an inarticulate torrent; he kept repeating the same thing over and over again in a fashion which was not a little suggestive of insanity.
"So you"re not dead!-you"re not dead:-you"re alive!-you"re alive! Well,-how does it feel to be dead? I ask you!-Is it not good to be dead? To keep dead is better,-it is the best of all! To have made an end of all things, to cease to strive and to cease to weep, to cease to want and to cease to have, to cease to annoy and to cease to long, to no more care,-no!-not for anything, to put from you the curse of life,-forever!-is that not the best? Oh yes!-I tell you!-do I not know? But for you such knowledge is not yet. For you there is the return to life, the coming out of death,-you shall live on!-for me!-Live on!"
He made a movement with his hand, and, directly he did so, it happened as on the previous evening, that a metamorphosis took place in the very abysses of my being. I woke from my torpor, as he put it, I came out of death, and was alive again. I was far, yet, from being my own man; I realised that he exercised on me a degree of mesmeric force which I had never dreamed that one creature could exercise on another; but, at least, I was no longer in doubt as to whether I was or was not dead. I knew I was alive.
He lay, watching me, as if he was reading the thoughts which occupied my brain,-and, for all I know, he was.
"Robert Holt, you are a thief."
"I am not."
My own voice, as I heard it, startled me,-it was so long since it had sounded in my ears.
"You are a thief! Only thieves come through windows,-did you not come through the window?" I was still,-what would my contradiction have availed me? "But it is well that you came through the window,-well you are a thief,-well for me! for me! It is you that I am wanting,-at the happy moment you have dropped yourself into my hands,-in the nick of time. For you are my slave,-at my beck and call,-my familiar spirit, to do with as I will,-you know this,-eh?"
I did know it, and the knowledge of my impotence was terrible. I felt that if I could only get away from him; only release myself from the bonds with which he had bound me about; only remove myself from the horrible glamour of his near neighbourhood; only get one or two square meals and have an opportunity of recovering from the enervating stress of mental and bodily fatigue;-I felt that then I might be something like his match, and that, a second time, he would endeavour in vain to bring me within the compa.s.s of his magic. But, as it was, I was conscious that I was helpless, and the consciousness was agony. He persisted in reiterating his former falsehood.
"I say you are a thief!-a thief, Robert Holt, a thief! You came through a window for your own pleasure, now you will go through a window for mine,-not this window, but another." Where the jest lay I did not perceive; but it tickled him, for a grating sound came from his throat which was meant for laughter. "This time it is as a thief that you will go,-oh yes, be sure."
He paused, as it seemed, to transfix me with his gaze. His unblinking eyes never for an instant quitted my face. With what a frightful fascination they constrained me,-and how I loathed them!
When he spoke again there was a new intonation in his speech,- something bitter, cruel, unrelenting.
"Do you know Paul Lessingham?"
He p.r.o.nounced the name as if he hated it,-and yet as if he loved to have it on his tongue.
"What Paul Lessingham?"
"There is only one Paul Lessingham! THE Paul Lessingham,-the GREAT Paul Lessingham!"
He shrieked, rather than said this, with an outburst of rage so frenzied that I thought, for the moment, that he was going to spring on me and rend me. I shook all over. I do not doubt that, as I replied, my voice was sufficiently tremulous.
"All the world knows Paul Lessingham,-the politician,-the statesman."
As he glared at me his eyes dilated. I still stood in expectation of a physical a.s.sault. But, for the present, he contented himself with words.
"To-night you are going through his window like a thief!"
I had no inkling of his meaning,-and, apparently, judging from his next words, I looked something of the bewilderment I felt.
"You do not understand?-no!-it is simple!-what could be simpler? I say that to-night-to-night!-you are going through his window like a thief. You came through my window,-why not through the window of Paul Lessingham, the politician-the statesman."
He repeated my words as if in mockery. I am-I make it my boast!- of that great mult.i.tude which regards Paul Lessingham as the greatest living force in practical politics; and which looks to him, with confidence, to carry through that great work of const.i.tutional and social reform which he has set himself to do. I daresay that my tone, in speaking of him, savoured of laudation,- which, plainly, the man in the bed resented. What he meant by his wild words about my going through Paul Lessingham"s window like a thief, I still had not the faintest notion. They sounded like the ravings of a madman.
As I continued silent, and he yet stared, there came into his tone another note,-a note of tenderness,-a note of which I had not deemed him capable.
"He is good to look at, Paul Lessingham,-is he not good to look at?"
I was aware that, physically, Mr Lessingham was a fine specimen of manhood, but I was not prepared for the a.s.sertion of the fact in such a quarter,-nor for the manner in which the temporary master of my fate continued to harp and enlarge upon the theme.
"He is straight,-straight as the mast of a ship,-he is tall,- his skin is white; he is strong-do I not know that he is strong- how strong!-oh yes! Is there a better thing than to be his wife? his well-beloved? the light of his eyes? Is there for a woman a happier chance? Oh no, not one! His wife!-Paul Lessingham!"
As, with soft cadences, he gave vent to these unlooked-for sentiments, the fashion of his countenance was changed. A look of longing came into his face-of savage, frantic longing-which, unalluring though it was, for the moment transfigured him. But the mood was transient.
"To be his wife,-oh yes!-the wife of his scorn! the despised and rejected!"
The return to the venom of his former bitterness was rapid,-I could not but feel that this was the natural man. Though why a creature such as he was should go out of his way to apostrophise, in such a manner, a publicist of Mr Lessingham"s eminence, surpa.s.sed my comprehension. Yet he stuck to his subject like a leech,-as if it had been one in which he had an engrossing personal interest.
"He is a devil,-hard as the granite rock,-cold as the snows of Ararat. In him there is none of life"s warm blood,-he is accursed! He is false,-ay, false as the fables of those who lie for love of lies,-he is all treachery. Her whom he has taken to his bosom he would put away from him as if she had never been,-he would steal from her like a thief in the night,-he would forget she ever was! But the avenger follows after, lurking in the shadows, hiding among the rocks, waiting, watching, till his time shall come. And it shall come!-the day of the avenger!-ay, the day!"