Читать книгу The Silent Dead - Arthur Gask - Страница 4

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FOLLOWING upon my coming to the house on the moor, it was some weeks before I settled down into a contented frame of mind and felt happy in my surroundings. It was not that my employer and two fellow-servants from the very first did not do their best to make me comfortable, as it was obvious they were intending to be most kind to me. The work, too, was light and I had plenty of spare time to myself; the food was good and there was a cosy, homely atmosphere in the big kitchen where we three had our meals. Another thing, I had a nice comfortably furnished room in the upper story and, the weather being cold—it was November when I arrived—I could have as big a fire as I wanted in the huge old-fashioned grate.

Yet—I could not shake off the feeling that an evil spirit brooded over the place. There was something so gloomy and sinister in the great loneliness of our surroundings, and it seemed to suggest to me tragedy of a mysterious and unknown kind. As I expected from what I had heard at the hotel in Bovey Tracey, we were miles and miles from anywhere, with no other habitations in sight, no road near us and, week after week, no human beings passed by. We might, I thought, be the last people left alive in all the world, destined to live and die and meet no fellow creatures again.

The house was situated about halfway down a sort of big saucer in the moor and surrounded on all sides in the near distance by the huge grey tors. Though of anything but a nervous disposition, I used sometimes to sit at my window at night and imagine there were hundreds of unfriendly eyes watching the house. When the moon was up I was quite sure I could see dim and ghostly figures flittering round among the rocks at the foot of the tors.

Amusingly enough, to some extent I had got upon a confidential footing with my master at once, almost indeed before I had been in the house a couple of hours. We had hardly finished the midday meal when he appeared at the door of the kitchen and beckoned me out.

"I want you to get accustomed to the dogs," he said, "and the sooner the better, because, seeing so few people, they are inclined to be unfriendly with strangers. I hope you are not afraid of dogs."

I told him I certainly was not, though up to then my acquaintance with dogs had been confined to the patting of the few mongrel strays that were always hanging about Rocker Street. He led me into the yard and two magnificent-looking Alsatians sidled up and eyed me suspiciously. "These are our children, mine and my servants," he said with his voice dropping to gentle and affectionate tones, "Jupiter and Juno, the much-loved children of three old people. We dread the time when one day we shall have to lose them. No, don't be afraid. They'll be quiet as long as I am here with them."

But I wasn't in the least bit afraid, and at once started to pat them. At first they just tolerated my attention, with their huge, fierce eyes fixed intently upon my face. Then, however, their tails began to wag ever so slightly which made my master seem rather surprised. "That's splendid!" he exclaimed. "You've evidently got a way with animals. Some people have, but it's a gift born in them and can never be acquired. Yes, they'll soon be friends with you and, once they are, they'll be faithful unto death. Now I'll show you another dog, but he won't take to you so easily. He's of a wild breed and you must never go too near him. First, I'll chain these two up. They've never got over their jealousy of Sakao. That's the other dog's name."

He led the way across the yard to a big shed and, opening the door, I saw it contained a good-sized cage, heavily barred. The front of the cage faced away from us and looked out on to the open moor. I sniffed hard and an unpleasant chord of memory stirred in me. I was back in our horrible little house in Rocker Street again.

"But you've not got another dog here," I exclaimed. "I can smell the smell of a wolf."

My master turned on me with a start. "No, no," he said sharply. "It's an Indian dog. He came from near Tibet."

A dark blackish shape darted out from the shadows at the far end of the cage and, standing on its hind legs, thrust its muzzle against the bars, at the same time wagging its tail violently.

I laughed merrily. "But it is a wolf, sir," I said, "an Alaskan wolf, and it's only half-grown as yet. It'll be twice that size one day."

My master's pleasant face turned to one of great sternness. "What makes you think that?"

"Oh, I know for certain," I said confidently. "You see, you see—" I hesitated for a few moments to gain time, "I had an uncle once who was a keeper in Max's Menagerie and he had charge of the wolves there. As a little girl, he used often to take me behind the cages and show me their cubs. That's how I recognise this wolf here."

His face was a study. He looked most embarrassed and uneasy, and, indeed almost angry. Then suddenly his whole expression altered and his face broke again into its usual pleasant lines. "Then I see it's going to be no good trying to deceive you," he said with a smile, "but I didn't want to frighten you. Yes, it is an Alaskan wolf and only half grown, as you said."

A sudden thought came to my mind. "And did he then get out and kill those sheep that Sunday morning," I asked, "those belonging to that farmer at a place called Lustleigh?" and a second later I could have kicked myself for being such a little fool to say I knew anything about what I heard had happened.

My master's face had become very stern again and he glared with angry suspicion at me. Still, he spoke very quietly, "And how, pray, do you come to know anything about it?" he asked.

Now as can be well understood, up to then I was only a very ill-educated young girl who had practically had no experience of the world, but I always take something of a pride in remembering how, after my so tactless and foolish admission that I was in possession of a secret he would certainly want no outsider to know, I yet collected my wits so quickly again and spoke quite as quietly and casually as he had done.

"Oh, I heard all about it this morning," I replied, "when I was waiting for you in the hotel," and I told him what the barman had said, adding quickly, "But you needn't be afraid, sir, that, if you do not wish it known, I shall never tell anyone you have a wolf here. I'm not a girl who talks and know when to hold my tongue. You can quite trust me."

His face had cleared while I was speaking and he smiled quite nicely again. "Yes, I think I can," he said. He shrugged his shoulders. "You see this poor beast has become something of a worry to me. When only a few weeks old he was smuggled here to me by a sea-captain friend of mine who thought he was giving me a wonderful present. I didn't want him, but I've gradually grown quite fond of him. He's a terrible one for getting out of his cage. That's twice he's done it now and the farmers would murder me if they knew I'd got him here."

"But how did you get him back after he'd killed those sheep?" I asked wonderingly.

"He came back by himself and I found him whimpering outside his cage. The poor beast had become frightened and wanted to get back to his home."

I took a great liking for my master at once and, in return, he evinced quite a fatherly interest in me. I always think it might have been because he had never married and had no children of his own. So the fact of having someone young about him appealed to him now in a novel sort of way. Another thing, too. With all his many interests, his collection of gold coins, his books and his writing at times he must have been lonely and wanted someone to talk to. His man, Rahm, was rather deaf and, accordingly, difficult to carry on a conversation with, and between him and Mrs. Rahm—I learnt the two of them had been in his household for upwards of thirty years—there was always something of the barrier of natural awe which I understand every Indian woman has for her Sahib. At any rate, with all her strength of character, Mrs. Rahm, I soon perceived, always seemed shy and meek when in his presence.

So, apart from helping in the housework for which I had been engaged because of Mrs. Rahm's advancing age and rheumatics, I speedily became as well something of a companion to my master. I carried his things for him when he went trout fishing in the little stream about half a mile from the house and accompanied him as well when he went out with his gun after plover on the moor. Of an evening, too, when I had soon become quite an expert with his typewriter, I typed while he dictated slowly a book he was writing about his so prized collection of gold coins.

And, oh, as it turned out in time, how fully I was to be repaid for every service I did for him! The three years I was associated with him were to make all the difference in the world to me in my after-life, as when we eventually parted I was altogether a changed girl from the raw and ignorant one who had first come to him.

When I had been with him only a few weeks, always of a kind and in a general way most conscientious disposition, it seemed suddenly to dawn upon him how unfair it was for him to have brought a girl of my age into such a lonely place where no chance would be given her of developing her character. So one day he told me smilingly that, as my mind was so virginal—of course he meant I was so ignorant of everything—he felt it his duty to give me some sort of education.

Accordingly, he started to awake my interest in everything generally. He talked to me of the countries he had been to, of history, of science, of the religions of the world, of the great men living and dead, of the great books that had been written, of art and even music.

His knowledge, as I came to realise later, was encyclopaedic and he had a way of imparting it that impressed it forcibly upon my memory. My memory was good and, naturally quick and sharp, he found me an apt pupil. He accompanied his teaching, too, with a reference to the hundreds and hundreds of books he had in his library.

Soon he was making me give a good part of each day to study, and if he had not stirred my ambitions I should certainly have regarded him as something of a hard taskmaster. However, I had become as enthusiastic as he was and never gave him any cause for complaint. I thought him one of the kindest and best of men and a real affection sprang up between us. I was not the only one either who thought the world of him.

His two Hindu servants idolised him, and everything he did, in their eyes, was right. Watching him like a faithful dog, his man, Rahm was always alert to do him any service he could.

Rahm and his wife were unlike any Hindus I had ever read about, as they both ate anything, and Rahm himself smoked quite a lot. Also whenever my master went into Bovey he always brought back a bottle of beer for him. I never had much to do with Rahm, as he was a quiet and reserved man who spoke very little. While he seemed to me to have little religion at all, his wife appeared to have lots of different kinds. Indeed, my master told me laughingly once that, though her people in India were of the Brahman or priestly class, she generally picked up something of a new religion wherever she went.

From the very first I was most interested in her, as she was a very unusual woman and so very clever and capable in so many ways. Of medium height, she was stout, with a big heavy face and huge dark eyes. She cooked beautifully and was one of the best dress-makers I have ever known. Of an evening when all the work was done, she would appear in a beautiful silk gown, and wearing big earrings and big bracelets of solid gold. She had beautiful brooches and rings of sparkling stones, too, and would bind her head round in a rich-looking scarf of most lovely colours. When later I had got to know her quite well I told her laughingly that she looked like a picture I had once seen of the favourite wife of an enormously wealthy Rajah. She was very pleased with what I said and gave me a stately bow. She could speak English perfectly.

About her religion, and I never could get out of her exactly what it was, but it was certainly of a funny kind. While she never admitted saying any prayers, at night she would burn incense sticks in her bedroom before several beautifully-carved little ivory statues she had upon a shelf there. One, in particular, always intrigued me. It was that of a squatting bull richly caparisoned, and she told me it was an exact reproduction of the Giant Bull of Siva in the city of Mysore. She had another one, the head of a fearsome-looking hideous snake with big amber eyes, and she said he was 'Siva the Destroyer' himself.

I asked her once if she believed in God and she replied, very solemnly, "Yes, and in more than one, in many." She went on to tell me she was a student of the Occult, "That which we don't see," she said, dropping her voice into a low whisper, "that dark world which lies all around us, but where the spirits move only in the mystery of the night." Her arm shot out towards the window looking out on to the moor. "At nights when the moon is full spirit men and women move along those tors, and if it is warm and not too bad for my rheumatism I go out and walk among them."

"But don't they ever harm you?" I asked, pretending to be very astonished.

She shook her head. "They would do if they dared, but they know I am myself of the spirit world with them, and accordingly protected. So, while they might do dreadful things to you if you went among them, they leave me alone."

Of course, while it certainly gave me a deliciously creepy feeling listening to her, I didn't believe a word she said. Still I asked curiously, "But how is it you are like this, so different from other people?"

She became very serious. "By long years of meditation. I am well over sixty now, and for more than forty years I have been training myself." She held up one fat and bejewelled hand warningly. "Do you know that when I look in one of those crystals I have shown to you I can see into the future as well as the past? I could see into some of yours if I tried, but the Sahib has forbidden me to do anything to you, and I bow to him as I would to any gods." She laughed softly. "Why, I could throw you into a sleep if he would let me and strip you bare of all your secrets. Oh, yes, girl, you have secrets, though they are not bad ones. Still, you have not told the Sahib all the truth. I had a spirit dream about you the other night and a rough-looking man asked me about you, but I would not tell him, and he went away. He will never trouble you any more."

Remembering what I had heard the barman say about her powers, I felt really uneasy now and was glad to think she was so friendly with me. After all, I told myself, it was impossible for anyone to read the future, though for all that I resolved to get my master's permission one day and let her tell me what she could of all that was going to happen to me.

Now, while undoubtedly this Indian woman talked a lot I considered rubbish about things I could not understand, of things I could grasp, as I have said, I found her a very clever woman.

One day she had a bad headache, with so much pain that she said she could hardly see. She suggested I should massage her head and neck for her and explained to me how I should do it. "But you must concentrate," she said sternly, "and be confident you are going to do me good." I did as she directed and almost at once she declared her pain was passing. "You have the gift of healing, my child," she exclaimed excitedly. "It is stronger in you than in me. You have the power of giving something of your youth and strength to others."

After that she gave me many lessons in massage, not, as she said, the mere kneading of the muscles, but acting also upon the nerves and transmitting curative properties all over the body. At any rate, when later my master had a bad attack of neuritis in one of his shoulders it was found I could take away the pain almost at once, and he was very grateful to me. "So, there's some good after all in that old lady," he laughed. "I told you she was a remarkable woman."

Mrs. Rahm was very proud of what she had discovered in me and, sending down to Plymouth for some of the best quality tweed, made me a costume which I was to learn afterwards was as beautifully cut as if it had come from the workshop of a designer in Mayfair.

And now I come to the beginning of a happening which years later was to occasion me much anxiety before its reverberations were silenced and died down for ever, Thank Heaven, now some time ago!

It started upon a horrible wet evening in the March after I had arrived at the Grey House. The morning had been fairly fine, but towards noon the mists began to roll over the moor and a drizzling rain set in. So far from clearing in the afternoon as it often did, the rain became worse and, with darkness setting in it was raining heavily. It was bitterly cold, too, and there was all the promise of a dreadful night.

I was in the big living-room, laying the table for my master's evening meal, while he was reading in an armchair before the bright fire. The two Alsatians were sleeping on a big rug beside him.

Suddenly, the dogs stirred uneasily and, sitting up, began to growl ominously. My master turned to me with a frown. "They heard something, Polly," he said and, as he spoke, the growls turned to snappy barks and then, even as we stood listening, there came a loud knocking upon the front door.

My heart began to beat painfully. All the months I had been upon the moor no one had ever come to the house after the night had fallen and, with the windows and doors heavily barred and the two big dogs to protect us, I had always felt so secure from any harm or danger. Now, however, the coming of someone, upon such a dreadful night, too, when the rain was lashing against the windows sent a chilling fear into me and I could feel my legs shaking under me. From the expression upon my master's face I could see he was not wholly undisturbed, either, and that made me feel even worse.

I always remembered that barman at the hotel having said the Colonel was afraid of nobody and nothing, but I had long since came to realise that the man was mistaken there. Fearless of everything in the ordinary way, I had learnt my master had yet one great anxiety and that was his collection of gold coins. They were more than three hundred of them and, very valuable, they would have tempted any thief to get hold of them. I know I had made his anxiety worse, too, by so tactlessly telling him, as I had done, that his possession of them had been discussed openly that morning over the bar in the Bovey Tracey hotel.

Now he sprang quickly to his feet. "Tell Rahm," he ordered me sharply, "to light the lantern and bring it to me upstairs. I am going to open the window over the front door and see who is knocking."

Obeying his orders and seeing Rahm run up with the lantern, I stood trembling at the bottom of the stairs to listen to what was going on.

I heard the window opened and my master call out, "Who are you, and what is it you want?"

"I've lost my way," called back a man's voice. "How far is it to Princetown, please?"

"Ten miles," was the reply, "but you'll never get there on a night like this. Who are you?"

"A holiday-maker from London. I've walked from Okehampton today."

"Extremely foolish," snapped my master. "You ought to have had more sense."

"Well, if I can't get to Princetown as you seem to think," said the man outside, "could you let me sleep in a stable or some barn tonight. I've got some sandwiches with me, and shan't trouble you for any food. I'm a returned soldier and accustomed to roughing it."

Now I knew my master to be very kind-hearted and would not allow that with all his disinclination to let a stranger come into the house. So, I was not at all surprised when I heard him say, "No, I'll have to let you come in," and then he added sharply. "But, first, are you carrying any firearms? You're not? Still, you'll have to let us search you to make sure. We are old people here and can't afford to take any risks. Wait where you are, and I'll come down and open the door."

A minute or two later the front door was opened, to bring within the rays of a lantern a young fellow, looking drenched from top to toe. With one hand my master held up the lantern and with the other restrained the snarling dogs whom he was holding by their leashes.

"Stand quite still," ordered my master, "or I shan't be able to keep in these dogs. Hold your hands above your head and my man will search you. I'm sorry, but we must be quite sure."

The stranger submitted smilingly to the search and then, unbuckling his knapsack from his shoulders, exposed the contents. No weapon being found there, my master led him into the house and ushered him into the big room where the fire was burning. "Now we'd better introduce ourselves," I heard him say. "I am Colonel Jasper, late of the Indian Army."

"And I'm Baxter Smith," returned the other, "at one time Lieutenant in the Second Kents and now an officer in the London branch of the Consolidated Bank." He held himself every erect and spoke in educated tones. "I am sure it is most kind of you to take me in. I am most grateful to you."

My master, repressing the annoyance he must have felt, at once became the courteous host. "My man is getting a room ready for you," he said graciously, "and, directly the fire is burning, you shall go upstairs and get rid of your wet things. I'm afraid an old dressing-gown is the best I can do for you while they are drying." Then, noticing his guest was looking at the growling dogs, he went on. "You needn't worry about them as long as I'm here, though they're always inclined to be unfriendly with strangers."

In the meantime I was going on laying the table, now, however, arranging for two. Covertly having a good look at the guest-to-be, I felt almost ashamed with myself for having been such a little fool and so frightened at his knocking upon the door. He appeared to be just what he said he was, an innocent holiday-maker who had lost his way, and one could not help feeling sorry for his drenched condition. Obviously, he was soaked to the skin.

Still, for all my sympathy there, I was not too much taken with his appearance. Certainly, he was not bad-looking, but I thought the expression of his face was an overbold and insolent one, and it was not made any better by his hard and glittering eyes. I judged him to be about seven or eight and twenty.

For the meal which followed, with his wet clothes taken away by Rahm to dry, he came to the table in the promised dressing-gown and pyjamas. I waited upon them, and it was a very nice meal, grilled trout, a cold duck and Stilton cheese. He stared at me quite a lot, almost, I thought disgustedly, as if he were trying to catch my eye. He was most respectful, however, to his host.

"But how is it?" asked my master, "if you were travelling from Okehampton to Princetown by compass as you say, that you were so much out in your reckoning, quite ten miles in a comparatively speaking short journey?"

The young fellow shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I had to keep on avoiding what I thought were bogs and I expect that put me out a bit. You see that damned mist closed down upon me about noon and I could see absolutely nothing after that until a narrow streak of it lifted for about two minutes about half an hour before I knocked on your door. Then I found I was almost banging into that big tor you've got close near here."

"I don't understand," said my master, looking very puzzled. "You mean to tell me you've been walking blind over the moor since midday to-day."

"Except for my compass. I was holding it in my hand almost all the time."

"And the first thing you saw was this big tor near the house?"

The other nodded. "Yes! Another five yards and I should have walked head-on into it. But that lift in the clouds came just in time and I saw the light of this house, too. I was so done up by then that, though the rain had started to come down in torrents, after taking the bearings of your lights, I had to sit down for a bit of a breather." He laughed. "I think I was lucky to see the lights here."

"Lucky!" exclaimed my master. "I should just think you were. Why, that's Black Tor you nearly ran into and it's surrounded on three sides by Fowler's Bog, the deepest and most dangerous bog on the whole moor. Two men are known for certain to have lost their lives there and, coming the way you must have done, you were walking within a few feet of it for two or three hundred yards. Why, it's dangerous for anyone who doesn't know every inch of the ground to walk there even in broad daylight."

At that moment the conversation was interrupted by Rahm coming into speak to Master and a short conversation followed. They spoke quickly in Hindustani and there was no particular expression upon their faces. Of course, at the time I didn't understand a word of what they said, but later that evening I learnt what the talk had been about.

"This man, Sahib," had said Rahm, "is a liar. He had had a pistol on him somewhere, most likely in one of his boots. He hid it in the bed before he handed out his wet clothes for me to dry. I saw the sheet had been disturbed and looked to see why. The pistol is fully loaded. Should I take the cartridges out and put the pistol back."

My master had replied quite quietly, "Ah, now we know where we are! No, don't touch the cartridges, or, directly he handles the pistol, he'll know they are gone. Get that piece of carborundum out of my drawer and file away the nipple on the trigger of the pistol. Be sure you file away enough, so that it won't strike the cartridges, and then put the pistol back. We'll lock him in his room tonight." Then, as Rahm had been leaving the room, he had turned apologetically to his guest. "I am sorry I can't give you coffee from freshly-ground berries, as my man tells me our little grinder has gone wrong. So, it's only coffee essence I can offer you," and he resumed the conversation where it had been interrupted.

At nine o'clock to the minute my master rose to his feet. "I don't want to appear inhospitable," he said, "but we always retire at the same time here and so, if you don't mind, I'll get you to go up to your room now." He laughed. "We shall be locking you in, too, for as I told you we old people cannot afford to take any risks. Besides, if you happened to walk in your sleep during the night it might turn out to be very dangerous for you, as the dogs run loose in the house after dark and, as I've told you, they're savage with strangers."

The next morning the lieutenant's door was unlocked very early and my master, accompanied by Rahm with the dried clothes, came into the room.

"Your good fortune is still holding," he said briskly, "for the rain has cleared off and it's going to be a fine day. When you are dressed you can find your way down yourself, as my little dogs are now out in the yard. Breakfast will be ready in twenty minutes."

However, our guest was quicker even than that, as when I was carrying some breakfast things into the big living-room to my great annoyance I found him already there by himself. He was holding a book of Shakespeare's Plays in his hand, and I guessed he must have taken it haphazardly out of the bookshelf. As it happened, it was one my master had recently given me for my lessons in English literature and he had written my name on the fly-leaf.

The young fellow looked up when I came into the room and greeted me unpleasantly. "Hullo, Polly," he exclaimed in cheeky and familiar tones. "So, the Polly of last night is Miss Polly Wiggs, is she?" He grinned. "Well, the surname's not half nice enough for such an elegant young lady as you are, and I think it a great shame, too, your wasting all your prettiness up here, so far away from the boys who'd like to make a fuss of you."

I felt myself colouring up hotly at his impudence. I had heard all about the pistol from Mrs. Rahm and was detesting him for the lies he had told my master. So it was something of an annoyance to me now that he had come to learn my name. Certainly, it seemed only a small thing then, but, had I only known it, his chance finding it out was to cast a dark shadow over my life in later years and, at any rate for a time, fill me with the chilling fear of dreadful consequences.

He was saved from the sharp retort I was about to make by the appearance of my master, and the two sat down to the meal. Directly it was over, my master lost no time in speeding him upon his journey. Having bidden him goodbye, he returned into the room where I was now clearing away the breakfast things.

"A bad character that young man," he remarked impressively to me, "and I am wondering now if it were a trick his arriving here last night in the pouring rain. It seemed to me that, during our little dinner when he wasn't watching you, he was looking very hard at my coin-cabinet, as if he had been expecting to find some such piece of furniture here." He smiled. "Yes, and he had the impudence to ask from where you came, saying you looked a London girl. When I didn't tell him immediately—I had no intention of doing it at all—he went on he was sure you were not one from Devonshire, as in that case you wouldn't have come to live up here."

"How did he make that out?" I asked sharply.

"Because Devon people, he said, believed this part of the moor was haunted and he told me a ridiculous story about someone he'd met a little while ago, whose grandfather had been attacked one night on the moor road not far from Bovey Tracey by an evil spirit in the form of a man with long hair, and he'd only managed to escape by leaving him to drink the blood of his pony. I told the young man I was astonished at his being so credulous."

A sudden chord of memory had stirred in me as my master was speaking, and then all suddenly I recollected what it was. "Oh, Colonel Jasper," I exclaimed, "then I've seen this man before and know who he is. I'm sure of it now. Several times last night his face puzzled me and I was wondering of whom he was reminding me. Now I know."

"Then who is he?" asked my master sharply, because I had stopped breathlessly.

"He's one of those two men," I said, "whom that barman at the Bovey Hotel, as I told you the first day I came up here, had been telling about Sakao killing those sheep. He must be, because afterwards I heard the barman tell him that same story you've just been telling me about the evil spirit drinking a pony's blood. The barman said it was to his grandfather it had all happened."

Another thought struck me and I felt my voice shaking in my dismay. "Oh, and it was to him the barman went on to tell a lot about you and how you had a valuable collection of gold coins. Worse than that, too, though the young fellow told the barman he was a journalist on a newspaper, I heard the man who came into the bar directly after he had left say he recognised him as a street-bookmaker from Whitechapel called Tod Bellamy who had a very bad reputation as he had been put in prison once for breaking in and stealing from someone's house."

My master looked troubled. "Then it seems almost certain," he said, "that he did come here to spy things out, and no wonder he seemed so interested in my cabinet." His face brightened and he spoke quite cheerfully, probably, I thought, to comfort me. "But at any rate, we needn't worry. It he does come we'll always be ready for him and, with the dogs here, we'll always know in plenty of time when there are any strangers about."

For many days afterwards, however, I was feeling intensely nervous and, at night, for hour after hour would lie awake listening for the dogs to start barking. My nervousness, too, was not made any better when Mrs. Rahm whispered darkly that she had been looking into her crystal and had seen blood in it, streams of blood, she said, and it meant evil was boding for someone. In her dreams, too, she said she had seen the black-winged angel of death flying round the tors, and she was sure it would not be very long before he would swoop down and bring death to someone.

Of course. I knew it was all nonsense, but for all that it frightened me. Still, weeks going by without anything happening, I at length lost all my fears and could sleep soundly once again. Then, all suddenly, like the bursting of a bomb, something worse than anyone could ever have imagined actually did happen and we were plunged headlong into terrible tragedy.

It was upon a Sunday morning and about half an hour after the dogs had been let out of the house, that Rahm came rushing into his master in a great state of consternation to say the dogs had been poisoned. Jupiter was not so very bad, for he was vomiting fiercely and getting rid of much of the poison, but Juno was in a pitiable state. Lying upon the ground, with her eyes almost bursting from her head, her outstretched body was arched horribly and jerking in convulsive spasms of agony. She was covered in sweat, as if she had been lathered with a shaving brush.

My master went white as death but, all prepared for such an emergency, lost not a second in trying to save the poor animal. She was given copious draughts of salt water to make her sick, the veins inside her ears were cut and cut until she was bleeding like a stuck pig and, when the spasms seized her, the two men held her down with all their strength to keep these spasms from tearing her to pieces, while to me was given the task of holding a chloroform-soaked sponge a few inches from her mouth and nostrils to render her as deeply unconscious as possible.

At first, with the awful spasms following so quickly upon one another, it seemed impossible she could be saved, but gradually they came less frequent and their strength weakened. Finally, they passed off altogether and we could see her agony was ended and that she was going to live. She lay limp and exhausted, but she was saved. Dosed with brandy and wrapped in a blanket, she was carried into the house and laid before the kitchen fire.

In the meantime, Jupiter was much better. He had had no very bad spasms, but, limp and sweating profusely, he looked a dreadfully sick animal. Given brandy, too, he was also blanketted and laid before the fire alongside of his mate.

It was not difficult to be quite certain how the poison, which my master said had been strychnine, had been picked up by the dogs, as Rahm found the remains of two pigeons lying in the yard. He brought them to his master who, after one quick glance at them, without a word disappeared into the house and I heard him going up the stairs to the upper story. In all my life, never before nor since have I seen such cold fury upon anyone's face. I knew he must have been sharing every spasm of the agony of his so-loved Alsatians, and I thought he looked like a madman controlling himself only with great difficulty.

A very few minutes later he came quickly into the kitchen where Rahm, his wife and I were looking after the dogs, and issued a sharp peremptory order in Hindustani to Rahm who nodded understandingly and at once left the room. Then he turned to me. "You stay where you are, Polly," he said curtly. "Through the telescope I've seen two men hiding behind those rocks under Black Tor and I am going out to deal with them."

But with his following after Rahm, I felt I must see what was going on and, disregarding Mrs. Rahm's insistence I should obey her master's order, ran up to the roof to look through the telescope myself. It was housed in a glass-walled dome-like structure, half sunk in the roof itself which was flat at that end of the house. Even at a short distance away the dome was not very conspicuous, though it allowed the telescope to be swung round in every direction upon its tripod. As my master had left it, the telescope was now pointing direct on to Black Tor and took in very clearly the line of rocks at its foot he had referred to. They were about breast high and I stared hard and breathlessly at them. However I could pick out no movement of anyone behind them.

My attention, however, was soon drawn to much nearer the house, and there was no longer any need for me to look through the telescope. In one direction I saw Rahm striding along with a rifle upon his shoulder. In another, also with a rifle upon his shoulder, my master was walking quickly and, to my horror, I saw he had got Sakao with him. The wolf was wearing his big collar and straining hard at the attached chain.

It was no wonder I felt scared, for I knew that if Sakao were loosed he would savage anyone, and I was fearful that in the mood my master then was, with the thought of the agony his loved Alsatians had gone through so upper most in his mind, there was no knowing to what length of punishment he would go.

I very soon took in what it was intended should happen. With my master going one way and Rahm the other, whoever were hiding behind that line of rocks would soon in one direction or the other be exposed to the fire of their rifles. Even if the hidden men were armed with pistols, they would be helpless against rifles, as they could be picked off long before their attackers came within pistol range.

What was flashing through my mind must have come too to the two hiding men. At any rate I knew suddenly that Rahm must have seen something, as, dropping upon one knee, he uplifted his rifle and I heard two reports in quick succession. Obviously, however, he hadn't succeeded in hitting either of them, as the next moment two figures darted from behind the rocks and began racing away.

Then what happened is almost too horrible to describe, and for years afterwards the memory of it haunted me. Sakao, the wolf, had broken away and was going after them like a streak of lightning, with his long dark body stretching close to the ground. I turned quickly to the telescope again and just caught him as the hindermost of the two men whipped round to deal with him. The telescope brought them close to me as if they were only a few feet away and I could see so plainly the man's ghastly face and terror-stricken eyes. His right arm shot out and I could glimpse the pistol in his hand, but however quickly he fired he must have missed the wolf and, in a matter of seconds, the big animal had got him by the throat and was shaking him from side to side in a way horrible to see.

Then everything which followed seemed to happen like lightning. The man who had been running in front stopped and ran back to help his companion whom Sakao had now pinned to the ground and was continuing to worry like a terrier with a rat. I heard the faint sounds of several pistol shots and, as the wolf instantly crumpled up, was sure he must have received a mortal wound. Then for perhaps two seconds the man who had shot him bent once over his friend, before turning round again and racing off at his utmost speed to disappear over a rise in the ground.

I saw my master arrive upon the scene of the ghastly struggle of which I had been such a fascinated but trembling spectator. From his attitude as he stood over the two bodies it was evident both the man and the wolf were dead. Rahm ran up quickly and a short conversation ensued. Then Rahm came back to the house and, going into one of the sheds reappeared quickly carrying a tarpaulin with him. I saw the two bodies, those of the wolf and the man, laid upon the tarpaulin and then it was dragged out of sight to behind Black Tor. I guessed what was probably going to be done. The bodies were to be thrown into Fowler's Bog.

Nearly an hour passed before my master, accompanied by Rahm came back to the house, and I went in to the big room at once to speak to him. He looked very strained and white and was mixing himself a brandy and soda.

"A bad business this, Polly," he said. "Sakao killed one of those men and—"

"I saw it all through the telescope," I interrupted, "and you've thrown the bodies in Fowler's Bog, haven't you?"

My master nodded miserably. "Yes, and I realise already that I have been much too hasty. It was very foolish as when the police come I shan't be able to deny what's happened. The other wretch will point out to them where his companion was killed and—" he shrugged his shoulders "—I don't know what will happen to me."

"Nothing will happen to you," I said sharply, "for the police won't be coming here and they'll never learn anything about it. When the man who escaped ran back to shoot Sakao I saw his face quite plainly. He was the man who came here that night for shelter from the rain, the man called Tod Bellamy, a Whitechapel bookmaker. I recognised him without the shadow of a doubt. Then, remember I heard them say at the hotel that he's been put in prison for house-breaking. So, he'll not dare to go to the police. How would he account for his being up here hiding among those rocks, and, another thing, to explain that he had shot Sakao he'd have to admit he was carrying a pistol. That would make things look very black for him as a one-time convict."

My master certainly appeared relieved at what I said, but for all that he spoke hesitatingly. "But he'll want his revenge," he said. "Of the bold character we know him to be, he's not the type of man to sit down tamely under all that's happened."

"But he'll have to," I insisted. "He's clever enough to realise he can't hurt you without hurting himself as well. No, I'm sure we shall not have any police coming up here. We shall hear nothing more about it."

And I proved to be quite right. Certainly we were all very worried at first, but with the days and weeks and even months passing and nothing happening, our fears gradually died down and in time we became quite certain we were safe.

Two years and longer passed by. My education had long since become a real obsession with my master, a greater one even than his collection of gold coins. He was tireless in instructing me and, awakening in me, as I have said, a lively ambition to become a really educated woman, I worked my hardest to do him credit.

"You're a clever girl, Polly," he said one day to me, "and, from what you tell me, you can only be getting most of your cleverness from your mother."

As can be well understood I had told him little of the truth about my parentage, fibbing that my mother had been a schoolteacher and my father a verger in a church. He was not at all curious about my parents and never doubted I was speaking the truth. Associated so much with him, he at length decided I should take my meals at his table. "And you're not to call me Master any more," he smiled. "I no longer look upon you as my servant. We are friends and companions and I am treating you almost as my adopted daughter. So, it's Colonel Jasper you are to call me now—" he regarded me affectionately "—and perhaps one day it may even be 'Father.'"

The Rahms were not at all jealous and, as the changes were the wishes of their so dearly-loved sahib, they accepted them as a matter of course.

"But you're not a girl who will spoil," Mrs. Rahm said to me once, "as you're much too sensible for that." She smiled knowingly. "Still, as I've told you before, I know you are something of a little story-teller and I certainly don't believe all you've told us about yourself. The other night I looked into one of my crystals and learn't quite a lot about you. Your ship will have to go through some great storms, but it will live through them and one day come safe into harbour." She nodded. "And it was quite a big ship I saw, with nothing small or shabby about it."

"Then when it comes in," I laughed, "you shall have one of its best cabins and I'll take you and Mr. Rahm for a lovely voyage."

She shook her head sadly. "But we shan't be here then, Polly dear," she sighed. "When I whisper to my crystal about myself, it always refuses to tell me anything. It goes very dark then and I see nothing but black and heavy clouds." She smiled brightly. "Still, I don't worry about it, as whatever Fate has ordained will happen to us, and we can only bow to her decisions and accept them uncomplainingly."

I had been at the house upon the moor for getting on for three years when a letter came from my master's sister in India, saying she was coming home for a few months stay and would arrive only a short time after her letter. I was most interested as I had heard quite a lot about her both from my master and Mrs. Rahm.

A Mrs. Arundel, and four and twenty years younger than my master, her husband was an important official in the Indian Civil Service. A highly-educated woman and a graduate of Cambridge University, she was something of a star in Indian social circles. So, as can be well understood I was not a little nervous as to exactly what she would think of me and the position I now held in her brother's household.

However, directly she arrived I realised that any fears I had been entertaining were quite groundless, as I found her a charming and broad-minded woman. She smiled when my master told her proudly of the education he had given me, but when she came to try me out—which she did very thoroughly—she became quite as enthusiastic as he was.

"I wouldn't like to say, with a little coaching, Polly," she said, "what examinations you could not pass. At any rate you certainly seem to have a wider general knowledge than I had at your age. Now what are you going to be when you leave my brother?"

My master answered for me. "I'm going to find her a place that will lead to something good," he said. "What she needs most now is a knowledge of the world. I have given her a good foundation and she must go to people of a good class who will help her on."

Mrs. Arundel looked amused. "But I don't think it will matter much what career you map out for her, James," she said, "as I'm quite sure she won't continue in it for long." She nodded smilingly to me. "You'll get married, won't you, Polly? With a face like yours, dear, to be someone's sweetheart is what you were made for."

She certainly made things much more lively for us from the first minute she entered the house. She was full of jokes and humour and poked a lot of good-natured fun at Mrs. Rahm for her crystal-gazing and belief in the Occult World.

"You take me out with you one night," she laughed, "and we'll meet some of these spirit friends of yours among the tors. I'm sure I could interest them as India is supposed to be cram-full of spirits like them," but Mrs. Rahm looked very serious and said it was never wise to joke about such matters.

However, if I greatly enjoyed Mrs. Arundel's company and the breath of new life she had undoubtedly brought into The Grey House, I was nevertheless soon to realise she was about to bring another crisis into my life, as after a lot of argument, she persuaded my master to give up living upon the moor and return to India with her, at any rate for a time.

She insisted Dartmoor was no place for old people, for directly she had seen them she said she had been shocked how they had all aged. The cold moorland air was too strong for them and they would certainly contract fatal illnesses if they didn't get away from it. My master at first resisted strongly, but ultimately gave in and it was arranged they should all return to India with her the following April.

My master wanted to take me with them but I was not too keen upon it and Mrs. Arundel thought, too, that it would not be in my best interests. "If you do come with us, Polly," she said, "you won't profit as much from all my brother has taught you as if you stay on in England. Now I have some old friends, French-Canadians, who are staying in Plymouth and I'll go and find out if they'd like to have you as a companion for their daughter Madeline. They are very nice people and I'm sure you would be happy with them."

She was gone for three days and returned triumphant. "They'll be delighted, Polly," she said, "and you're to be taken as one of the family. As I've told you, there are only three of them, this Mr. Charles de Touraine, his mother, a very old lady, and his daughter, Madeline, a pretty young girl and, funnily enough, something very much like you."

Taking me aside, she whispered, "I had to tell them a fib or two about your parents, as the old lady is a bit snobby and very proud of their descent from one of the French kings of Navarre. So, I told them your mother had been at Girton College with me when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge, and I said your father had been a clergyman. After all, as your dad was a verger, he was something to do with a church, wasn't he?" She looked amused. "Quite excusable fibs and it doesn't do anyone any harm. You speak nicely and you'll look the part anyhow, and I think it rather a joke."

Things happened very quickly then and less than a month later I said goodbye to them all. My master was obviously very upset and gave me £50 as a parting present. Mrs. Rahm was in tears and, greatly to my surprise, gave me two of her belongings, both of which I knew she prized greatly, one of her mysterious crystals and a gold bangle with peculiar markings upon it. She said the bangle was given her by a monk in one of the Lamaseries in Tibet and the markings meant she had been accepted into the Outer Circle of workers in the World of the Occult.

I left them only a few days before they were due to sail from Tilbury and went straight to my new place in Plymouth. Then, to my intense horror and unutterable grief, I read in the newspapers the following week that the boat they were on had foundered in the Bay of Biscay, with everyone on board being lost. It was surmised the boat had struck a floating mine, an aftermath of the Great War.