The Heath Hover Mystery.
by Bertram Mitford.
CHAPTER ONE.
THE DOOR IN THE CORNER.
John Seward Mervyn lay back in his accustomed armchair, and--looked.
The room was of medium size, partly panelled, and partly hung with dark red papering. It was low ceiled, and the bending beams between the strips of whitewash were almost black. This added to the gloominess of the apartment whether by day or night; and now it was night. To be precise it was the stroke of midnight.
A bright fire glowed and flared in the wide, old-world chimney grate, but even this failed altogether to dispel a certain suggestion of the hauntings of vague, shadowy evil influences that seemed to be in the atmosphere. The lamplight too, was cheerful enough, and yet not. It would have been, anywhere else, but here it seemed that any element of cheerfulness must somehow infallibly miss its way.
The moan of the winter wind surged around the gables of the old house, rising now and then to a most doleful howling, and within, beams and rafters cracked, breaking out loudly in new and unexpected places. Also in a manner somewhat nerve-trying to one who sat there in the ghostly midnight solitude--as this one sat, and he in the full consciousness that for years and years past n.o.body had been found to inhabit this house even rent free and for the sole consideration of residing within the same. And he was trying the experiment.
John Seward Mervyn was a man who prided himself on being an absolute and cynical sceptic with regard to the supernatural, and he was poor.
Dreadful tales were afloat with regard to this particular tenement, but at such he laughed. n.o.body had been able to inhabit it even for weeks.
Several had made the attempt, allured by the inducement of rent free.
They had remained just long enough to begin to congratulate themselves upon such a find--and then--out they had gone, bag and baggage, without so much as a day"s notice. Several in succession; and what they had seen--or heard--somehow or other none had been willing--or able--to disclose. But the present occupant had been in possession for some months, to the marvel of the neighbourhood.
Now he sat there at dead midnight in absolute solitude. Not a soul was within call; the nearest habitations were two or three labourers"
cottages on the further side of a wooded hill. His thoughts were of the past, and they were not pleasant, those of the past seldom are. A couple of pipes were on the table at his elbow, and a tobacco jar-- likewise a square whisky bottle, a syphon and a tumbler, but of this he had partaken but little. But somehow he felt his solitude to-night as he had never felt it since he had entered on possession. To-night he felt he would have given something for human companionship in almost any shape. The winter wind howled without, not loud but inexpressibly dismal. And he sat, and--looked.
Looked! At what?
In a corner of the room was a door--a ma.s.sive door. It had a curious old-world, wrought-iron handle. And at this he was looking--gazing, in fact, more than intently. Was it slowly turning?
He could have sworn that it was. Well, what, then? The door was securely locked, the key was in a very safe place. And the door led nowhere and from nowhere. It led, in fact, to a vault-like underground cellar whose solid walls were totally devoid of outlet. When he had entered on possession he had exhaustively verified this, and having thus satisfied himself had laughed all the startling and shadowy possibilities which popular report ascribed to the place to utter scorn.
And yet, now to-night, he could have sworn that the handle of this door was slowly turning.
To anybody less sceptical--less unaffectedly and wholesouledly sceptical--there was that in the conviction which would have set up a blood-chilling, hair-raising effect. The utter loneliness of the place, the midnight sounds, the moaning of the doleful winter wind, the crackings and creakings of the ghostly old house, the dreadful legends that centred round that very vault, of which the movement of this very door handle was a preliminary incident--would have been sufficient to have driven out such into the pitiless winter night rather than remain sitting there--on the watch.
On the watch--for what? Could a spectral hand undo that lock? Then the watcher rubbed his eyes and looked again. Certainly the handle had turned. Its broad iron loop had been horizontal before, now it was at an angle of forty-five. Of that he was as sure as that he was alive and sitting there. And then he remembered that--this was the night.
It doesn"t matter what day of the month it was. Manifestations were liable to occur at any time, and sporadically, but there were two nights in the year when--Well he had obtained a vague inkling as to what might be expected, but the last of these two dates had befallen prior to his occupation. This was the second of them within the year. This was the night.
"Now this is all unutterable bosh," Mervyn said to himself. "I"ll have another drink anyhow. Then I"ll turn in."
He reached for the whisky bottle, and filled up. Yet he was conscious of a feeling as though a chill were running down him from head to foot, notwithstanding that the fire was glowing with a heat that was almost fierce; and with the hissing squirt of the syphon into the tumbler there mingled a sound as though something or somebody were shuffling or groping behind that heavily locked door. He took a long pull at his tumbler, almost emptying it. Then he looked again at the broad iron loop handle. Its straight lower end, which before had stood at an angle of forty five, was now vertical.
His eyes dilated upon the phenomenon. The cold chill that ran through his system seemed to intensify. Mervyn, though by no means a total abstainer was a temperate man--so it was not that. Well, the obvious thing was to go and get the key, and open the door and satisfy himself.
But, for the life of him he--could not.
No. He could not. He sat staring more and more wildly with dilated eyes. He was even horribly conscious of a slow pallor creeping over his face. What did it mean? The whole atmosphere of the room seemed charged with some evil influence. An owl hooted melodiously outside.
It was answered by another. This seemed in a measure to break the spell, for he loved birds and bird voices, and the hooting of owls in the dark woods overhanging the long lake-like pond behind his dwelling was a sound that often drew him forth on moonlight nights to stand on the sluice and listen for an hour at a time. There was to him nothing boding or sinister in the voices of the night birds, any more than there was in the jubilant shout of the cuckoo by day, or the tw.a.n.ging of the nightingale.
He looked again. Certainly that door handle was moving, and it could be moved by no mortal hand. Yet to make sure, he found his voice.
"Any one there?" he called, and as he did so he was conscious of a suspicion of a quake in his voice.
For answer only a soft drive of sleet against the curtained window, and through it he could swear that the door handle slowly creaked. The door itself stood shadowy in the gloom of the corner where the light only half reached.
Then something moved. For the life of him the watcher could not repress a start, a thrill of the nerves. But the sound, the movement, did not come from the corner whereon his tense gaze was fixed. There was a little black kitten curled up asleep in an armchair opposite the one in which he was seated--a tiny ball of woolly fluff, which during its short life had been the regular companion of his lonely evenings, and of which he was almost humanly fond. It, now, was uncurling itself with a sudden celerity totally foreign to the usual deliberation of its kind on awakening from sleep. Its round eyes were wide open, and a crescendo fire of shrill growls were proceeding from its little throat. Its back was arched, and its fur all standing up, and--its gaze too, was fixed upon that door in the shadowy corner. Then it spat, retreating further and further till it was against the back of the chair, for all the world as though to repel the onslaught of its natural and hereditary enemy-- dog.
"The fact is," thought Mervyn, noting this, "I have been too much shut up with myself, and the utter, infernal loneliness of life here is eating into my nerves." But the sensible side of this sceptical reflection was undermined by another--that there are occasions when animals can see what we cannot. And this tiny creature was showing unmistakable and increasing signs of perturbation and alarm.
He spoke to it--softly, caressingly--then went over and picked it up.
As he returned with it to his own chair it struggled violently as though to escape--a thing it had never done--growling the while with redoubled intensity. And his own chair was nearer to that door.
"Now Poogie, don"t be a little fool," he apostrophised, holding it tighter. But the tiny creature became almost frantic, striking its claws into his hand. He released it, and it darted like lightning into the far corner of the room, where it crouched, still growling.
For all his scepticism the man was conscious of a chill feeling in the region of the spine. He reached out a hand for the square bottle. The hand shook, and gla.s.s clinked against gla.s.s more than once as he filled out a liberal measure. This he tossed off, and as he glanced again towards the centre of attention the gla.s.s fell from his hand on to the table. _The door had opened_.
Had opened--was opening. As yet but a few inches of dense black slit, but it seemed to be gaining in width. Mervyn gazed at it with dilated eyes, and as he did so he realised that the blood had receded from his face, leaving it cold--clammy. What on earth--or beyond the earth-- could have opened that door, secured as it was with a solid lock, the key of which was at that moment safe within one of the drawers of his writing table? What on earth--or from beyond the earth--was he going to behold when that door should be opened to its full width? Moved by a natural instinct of material defence, he backed towards the fireplace-- still without taking his gaze from that slowly opening door--and bent down as though to seize the poker, but refrained, as the conviction flooded his mind that whatever it might be that he was about to meet certainly no material weapon would be available against it. Again he found his voice.
"Any one there?" he repeated, this time conscious of very much more than a suspicion of a quaver in his voice.
As if in answer, the door noiselessly opened further. The black gap now occupied half the doorway. And then, while he was meditating a frantic rush forward to make one desperate effort at clearing up the mystery whatever it might be, something occurred to divert the awful tensity of apprehension which had about reached its climax.
Through the doleful, long drawn howling of the winter wind and the rattle of sleet, came a cry. A cry--ever so faint--distant--but just audible; a cry, as of distress, of utter, dire, and hopeless extremity-- and it came from without. And it was clearly and unmistakably human.
CHAPTER TWO.
THE CRY FROM THE ICE.
Every nerve rigid and tense Mervyn listened again. Yes--it was repeated. It echoed forth more distinctly now upon the dismal night, and it came from far up the great pond above. Quickly he rose and threw on a warm cloak, and as quickly reached the front door, turned the key, and went out. Somebody was in imminent peril--and then he remembered.
The ice!
He sprang up the path stairway which led to the sluice, and even as he did so the thought flashed through his mind that he had been on the eve of falling asleep in his chair when the phenomenon of the door handle had befallen to start him wide awake. No more thought however did he give to this, as he reached the level of the sluice and looked out.
The long triangle of the pond narrowing away between its overhanging woods, shone in the moonlight a gleaming sheet of ice, whose silver surface the drive of sleet was already whitening, and the firs in the dark woods which flowed down the banks were scintillating with h.o.a.rfrost. Now again, from far up that long gleaming triangle, came the raucous, agonised appeal for aid, this time quite distinctly audible.
"Some one"s got stuck there in the ice," said Mervyn to himself. "But what the devil is he doing there at this time of night? Some poacher I suppose. Well, poaching isn"t a capital crime." And raising his voice he answered the shout with a vigorous and rea.s.suring halloo.
The sleet had suddenly ceased, and the clouds parting somewhat, showed glimpses of a rushing moon. Far up the frozen surface a dark interruption was just discernible. Here it was that the ice had parted, and from here now came a responsive, but weakening shout of hopeless human extremity.
"Keep up--keep up," bellowed Mervyn through his hands. "I"m coming."
He did not stop to think, he did his thinking while he moved. He went quickly down the sluice path to his house, all superst.i.tious midnight imaginings thrown to the winds. To have started straight for the spot would have been to render no earthly service to the submerged man. He would have been powerless for anything save to stand on the bank and encourage him drowning, wherefore the additional few minutes sacrificed to returning to the house and procuring a ladder might mean the difference in any case between life and death.
The ladder was not found quite so easily as he had reckoned on, and when found, it proved a trifle heavier than he had expected. In spite of the biting cold he was streaming with perspiration by the time he had dragged it up the steep path to the level of the sluice again, and by the time he had brought it to the gate which opened into the path through the wood which skirted the length of the long triangle of ice he was wondering if he could get any further with it. But he sent forth a loud, encouraging shout, and without waiting for an answer, held on his way.
Fortunately every inch of the latter was known to him, and shafts of moonlight, darting through the leafless wood aided him appreciably.
Still the way seemed interminable, and his progress, weighted as it was, was perforce slow. He knew exactly where to find the spot, and, lo-- there it was.
"Are you there?" he cried, parting some elder stems, to reach the edge, and thrusting out the ladder along the smooth, shining surface. No answer came, but in the glint of moonlight he could see the shattered, heaving ice slabs, and wedged in between these, supported by both arms extended, he made out the head and shoulders of a man.