The Haunting of Low Fennel Part 1

The Haunting of Low Fennel.

by Sax Rohmer.

I

"There's Low Fennel," said Major Dale.

We pulled up short on the brow of the hill. Before me lay a little valley carpeted with heather, purple slopes hemming it in. A group of four tall firs guarded the house, which was couched in the hollow of the dip--a low, rambling building, in parts showing evidence of great age and in other parts of the modern improver.

"That's the new wing," continued the Major, raising his stick; "projecting out this way. It's the only addition I've made to the house, which, as it stood, had insufficient accommodation for the servants."

"It is a quaint old place."

"It is, and I'm loath to part with it, especially as it means a big loss."

"Ah! Have you formed any theories since wiring me?"

"None whatever. I've always been a sceptic, Addison, but if Low Fennel is not haunted, I'm a Dutchman, by the Lord Harry!"

I laughed rea.s.suringly, and the two of us descended the slope to the white gate giving access to a trim gravel path flanked by standard roses. Mrs. Dale greeted us at the door. She was, as I had heard, much younger than the Major, and a distinctly pretty woman. In so far Dame Rumour was confirmed; other things I had heard of her, but I was not yet in a position to pa.s.s judgment.

She greeted me cordially enough, although women are usually natural actresses. I thought that she did not suspect the real object of my visit. Tea was served in a delightful little drawing-room which bore evidence of having but recently left the hands of London decorators, but when presently I found myself alone with my host in the Major's peculiar sanctum, the real business afoot monopolised our conversation.

The room which Major Dale had appropriated as a study was on the ground floor of the new wing--the wing which he himself had had built on to Low Fennel. In regard to its outlook it was a charming apartment enough, with roses growing right up to the open window, so that their perfume filled the place, and beyond, a prospect of purple heather slopes and fir-clad hills.

Sporting prints decorated the walls, and the library was entirely, or almost entirely, made up of works on riding, hunting, shooting, racing, and golf, with a sprinkling of Whyte-Melville and Nat Gould novels and a Murray handbook or two. It was a most cosy room, probably because it was so untidy, or, as Mrs. Dale phrased it, "so manny."

On a side table was ranked enough liquid refreshment to have inebriated a regiment, and, in one corner, cigar-boxes and tobacco-tins were stacked from the floor some two feet up against the wall. We were soon comfortably ensconced, then, the Major on a hard leather couch, and I in a deep saddle-bag chair.

"It's an awkward sort of thing to explain," began Dale, puffing away at a cigar and staring through the open window; "because, if you're to do anything, you will want full particulars."

I nodded.

"Well," the Major continued, "you've heard how that blackguard Ellis let me down over those shares? The result?--I had to sell the Hall--Fennel Hall, where a Dale has been since the time of Elizabeth! But still, never mind! that's not the story. This place, Low Fennel, is really part of the estate, and I have leased it from Meyers, who has bought the Hall. It was formerly the home farm, but since my father's time it has not been used for that purpose. The New Farm is over the brow of the hill there, on the other side of the high road; my father built it."

"Why?"

"Well,"--Dale shifted uneasily and a look of perplexity crossed his jolly, red face--"there were stories--uncomfortable stories. To cut a long story short, Seager--a man named Seager, who occupied it at the time I was at Sandhurst--was found dead here, or something; I never was clear as to the particulars, but there was an inquiry and a lot of fuss, and, in short, no one would occupy the property. Therefore the governor built the New Farm."

"Low Fennel has been empty for many years then?"

"No, sir; only for one. Ord, the head gardener at the Hall, lived here up till last September. The old story about Seager was dying out, you see; but Ord must have got to hear about it--or I've always supposed so. At any rate, in September--a dam' hot September, too, almost if not quite as hot as this--Ord declined to live here any longer."

"On what grounds?"

"He told me a c.o.c.k-and-bull story about his wife having seen a horrible-looking man with a contorted face peering in at her bedroom window! I questioned the woman, of course, and she swore to it."

He mopped his heated brow excitedly, and burnt several matches before he succeeded in relighting his cigar.

"She tried to make me believe that she woke up and saw this apparition, but I bullied the truth out of her, and, as I expected, the man Ord had come home the worse for drink. I made up my mind that the contorted face was the face of her drunken husband--whom she had declined to admit, and who therefore had climbed the ivy to get in at the open window."

"She denied this?"

"Of course she denied it; they both did; but, from evidence obtained at the _Three Keys_ in the village, I proved that Ord had returned home drunk that night. Still"--he shrugged his shoulders ponderously--"the people declined to remain in the place, so what could I do? Ord was a good gardener, and his drunken habits in no way interfered with his efficiency. He gained nothing out of the matter except that, instead of keeping Low Fennel, a fine house, I sent him to live in one of the Valley Cottages. He lives there now, for he's still head gardener at the Hall."

I made an entry in my notebook.

"I must see Ord," I said.

"I should," agreed the Major in his loud voice; "you'll get nothing out of him. He's the most pig-headed liar in the county! But to continue.

The place proved unlettable. All the old stories were revived, and I'm told that people cheerfully went two miles out of their way in order to avoid pa.s.sing Low Fennel at night! When I sold the Hall and decided to lease the place from the new proprietor, believe me it was almost hidden in a wilderness of weeds and bushes which had grown up around it. By the Lord Harry, I don't think a living soul had approached within a hundred yards of the house since the day that the Ords quitted it! But it suited my purpose, being inexpensive to keep up; and by adding this new wing I was enabled to accommodate such servants as we required. The horses and the car had to go, of course, and with them a lot of my old people, but we brought the housekeeper and three servants, and when a London firm had rebuilt, renovated, decorated, and so forth, it began to look habitable."

"It's a charming place," I said with sincerity.

"Is it!" snapped the Major, tossing his half-smoked cigar on to a side table and selecting a fresh one from a large box at his elbow. "Help yourself, the bottle's near you. Is it!... Hullo! what have we here?"

He broke off, cigar in hand, as the sound of footsteps upon the gravel path immediately outside the window became audible. Through the cl.u.s.ter of roses peered a handsome face, that of a dark man, whose soft-grey hat and loose tie lent him a sort of artistic appearance.

"Oh, it's you, Wales!" cried the Major, but without cordiality. "See you in half an hour or so; little bit of business in hand at the moment, Marjorie's somewhere about."

"All right!" called the new arrival, and, waving his hand, pa.s.sed on.

"It's young Aubrey Wales," explained Dale, almost savagely biting the end from his cigar, "son of Sir Frederick Wales, and one of my neighbours. He often drops in."

Mentally considering the Major's att.i.tude, certain rumours which had reached me, and the youth and beauty of Mrs. Dale, I concluded that the visits of Aubrey Wales were not too welcome to my old friend. But he resumed in a louder voice than ever:--

"It was last night that the fun began. I can make neither head nor tail of it. If the blessed place is haunted, why have we seen nothing of the ghost during the two months or so we have lived at Low Fennel? The fact remains that nothing unusual happened until last night. It came about owing to the infernal heat.

"Mrs. Alson, the housekeeper, came down about two o'clock, intending, so I understand, to get a gla.s.s of cider from the barrel in the cellar. She could not sleep owing to the heat, and felt extremely thirsty. There's a queer sort of bend in the stair--I'll show you in a minute; and as she came down and reached this bend she met a man, or a thing, who was going up! The moonlight was streaming in through the window right upon that corner of the stair, and the apparition stood fully revealed.

"I gather that it was that of an almost naked man. Mrs. Alson naturally is rather reticent on the point, but I gather that the apparition was inadequately clothed. Regarding the face of the thing she supplies more details. Addison"--the Major leant forward across the table--"it was the face of a demon, a contorted devilish face, the eyes crossed, and glaring like the eyes of a mad dog!

"Of course the poor woman fainted dead away on the spot. She might have died there if it hadn't been for the amazing heat of the night. This certainly was the cause of her trouble, but it also saved her. About three o'clock I woke up in a perfect bath of perspiration. I never remember such a night, not even in India, and, as Mrs. Alson had done an hour earlier, I also started to find a drink. Addison! I nearly fell over her as she lay swooning on the stair!"

He helped himself to a liberal tot of whisky, then squirted soda into the gla.s.s.

"For once in a way I did the right thing, Addison. Not wishing to alarm Marjorie, I knocked up one of the maids, and when Mrs. Alson had somewhat recovered, gave her into the girl's charge. I sat downstairs here in this room until she could see me, and then got the particulars which I've given you. I wired you as soon as the office was open; for I said to myself, 'Dale, the devilry has begun again. If Marjorie gets to hear of it there'll be h.e.l.l to pay. She won't live in the place.'"

He stood up abruptly, as a ripple of laughter reached us from the garden.

"Suppose we explore the scene of the trouble?" he suggested, moving toward the door.

I thought in the circ.u.mstance our inspection might be a hurried one; therefore:

"Should you mind very much if I sought it out for myself?" I said. "It is my custom in cases of the kind to be alone if possible."

"My dear fellow, certainly!"