The Haunting of Low Fennel Part 11

"Look again!" snapped East.

I stooped over the first set of marks. Clearly indented, I perceived the impressions of two small, bare feet, and, eighteen or twenty inches ahead, those of two small hands. I experienced a sudden chill; my blood seemed momentarily to run coldly in my veins, and I longed to depart from the shadow of the trees, from the neighbourhood of the Black Gap, and from the neighbourhood of the man who had died there. For it seemed to me that a barefooted infant had recently crawled from the side of the dead man into the coppice overhanging the tarn.

Looking up, I found East's steely eyes set upon me strangely.

"Well!" said he, "do you not miss something that you antic.i.p.ated finding?"

I hesitated, fearfully. Then:

"Sir Jeffrey carries no cane," I began----

"Good! I had failed to note that. Good! But what else?"

Closely I surveyed the body, noting the disarranged garments, the discoloured face.

"What of this torn brown paper?" snapped my friend.

"Good heavens!" I cried; and like a flash my glance sought again those mysterious tracks--those tracks of _something_ that had crawled away from the murdered man.

"Where," inquired East deliberately, "is the Burmese porcelain ape of which we have heard? And, since there are no tracks _approaching_ the body, where did the creature come from that made those retiring from it, and ... what manner of creature was it?"

III

At East's request (for my friend was a man of very great influence) the police, beyond the unavoidable formalities, took no steps to apprehend the murderer of Sir Jeffrey. East had a long interview with the dead man's daughter, and, shortly afterwards, went off to London, leaving me to my own devices.

The subject of the strange death of the baronet naturally engrossed my attention to the exclusion of all else. Especially, my mind kept reverting to the tracks which we had discovered leading from the dead man's body into the coppice. I scarcely dared to follow my ideas to what seemed to be their logical conclusion.

That the track was that, not of a child, but of an _ape_, I was now convinced. No such track approached where the victim had lain; no track of any kind, other than that of his own heavy footprints, led to the spot ... but the track of an ape receded from it; and the baronet had been carrying an ape (inanimate, certainly, according to all known natural laws), which was missing when his body was found!

"These are the reflections of a madman!" I said aloud. "Am I seriously considering the possibility of a blue porcelain monkey having come to life? If so, since no other footprints have been discovered, I shall be compelled, logically, to a.s.sume that the blue porcelain monkey strangled Sir Jeffrey!"

My friend, East, attached very great importance to the missing curio; this he had not disguised from me. But, beyond spending half an hour or so among the trees of the coppice and around the margin of the Black Gap, he had not to my knowledge essayed any quest for it.

Finding my thoughts at once unpleasant and unprofitable company, I suddenly determined to make a call at The Warrens, in order to inquire about the health of poor Miss Baird, and incidentally to learn if there were any new development.

Off I set, and failed to repress a shudder, despite the blazing sunlight, as I pa.s.sed the gap and the spot where we had found the dead man. A tropical shower in the early morning had quite obliterated the mysterious tracks. Coming to The Warrens, I was shown into the fine old library. That air of hush, so awesome and so significant, prevailed throughout the house whose master lay dead above, and when presently Mr.

Damopolon entered, attired in black, he seemed to complete a picture already sombre.

As East and I had several times remarked, he was a singularly handsome man, and moreover, a very charming companion, widely travelled and deeply versed in those subjects to which the late baronet had devoted so many years of his life. I had always liked Damopolon, though, as a rule, I am distrustful of his race; and now, seeing at a glance how hard the death of Sir Jeffrey had hit him, I offered no unnecessary word of condolence, but immediately turned the conversation upon Miss Baird.

"She has but just hurried off to London, doctor," he said, to my surprise. "A telegram from the solicitors rendered her immediate departure unavoidable."

"She has sustained this dreadful blow with exemplary fort.i.tude," I replied. "Are you sure she was strong enough for travel?"

"I myself escorted her to the station; and Mrs. Grierson, the late baronet's sister, has accompanied her to London."

"By the way," I said, "whilst I remember--was Sir Jeffrey carrying a cane at the time of his death?"

"He had with him a heavy ash stick, as usual, when we parted at Sotheby's, doctor; but, of course, he may have left it there, as he had a large parcel to take."

"Ah! that parcel! You can no doubt enlighten me, Mr. Damopolon? What, roughly, were the dimensions of this Burmese idol?"

"The monkey? I don't think it was actually an idol, doctor; it was, rather, a grotesque ornament. Oh, it was about the size of a small Moorish ape, hollow, and weighing perhaps six or seven pounds."

"Was it upon a pedestal?"

"No. It was completely modelled, even to the soles of the feet and the nails."

"Extraordinary!" I muttered. "Uncanny!"

Some little while longer I remained, and then set out, my doubts in no measure cleared up, for the cottage. To my surprise--for I had no idea that I had tarried so long--dusk was come. I will frankly confess it--I experienced a thrill of supernatural dread at the thought that my path led close beside Black Gap. However, it was a glorious evening, and I should have plenty of light for my return journey. I walked briskly across the moorpath toward the scene of the mysterious crime, hoping that I should find East returned when I gained the cottage.

Perhaps in a wandering life I have known more thrilling moments than some men; but never while memory serves shall I forget that, when, coming abreast of the coppice, and glancing hurriedly into the shadow of the trees ... I saw a crouching figure looking out at me!

Speech momentarily failed me; I stood rooted to the spot. Then:

"All right, old man!" I heard. "Shall be with you in a moment!"

It was East!

Fear changed to the wildest astonishment. Carrying a strange-looking bundle, he came out and joined me on the path.

"Did I frighten you?"

"Is it necessary to ask!" I cried. "But--whatever were you doing there by the Black Gap?"

"Fishing! Look what I have caught!"

He held up for my inspection the object which he carried, by means of two loops of stout cord bound about it. It was a large china figure of an ape!

"The blue monkey!" he snapped. "Come! I am going to The Warrens."

IV

Again I sat in the fine old library of The Warrens. At the further end of the long, book-laden table, facing me, sat East; Mr. Damopolon occupied a chair on the right, and midway between us, in the centre of the table, presiding over that strange meeting, was the fateful blue monkey.

"You see, Mr. Damopolon," said East, "I knew that Sir Jeffrey was carrying this thing"--he indicated the image--"at the time of his death, and, since it had disappeared, I a.s.sumed at first that it had been the motive of the crime. Sir Jeffrey had money and other valuables upon him; therefore we were obviously dealing with no ordinary thief.

"Accordingly, I made inquiries respecting the history of the thing, and found that it possessed but little market value and next to no historical importance. It was of comparatively modern Chinese workmanship, and Sir Jeffrey had bought it, apparently, because it amused him, though why he should have taken the trouble to carry it home, heaven only knows. My first idea--that the curio was a very rare and costly piece--was thus knocked on the head.

"I sought another motive for a crime so horrible and, by a stroke of intuition, I found one. You may not have had an opportunity of studying the mysterious tracks which so puzzled us, Mr. Damopolon, before they were obliterated, but my friend, the doctor, will bear me out. They commenced, then, close beside the body of the murdered man, and they were, as I now perceive, made by the feet of this blue monstrosity upon the table here!"

"Impossible," murmured the secretary incredulously.

"So it appeared to me at the time, when, although I had not then seen the image of the monkey, I perceived, by the absolutely regular character of the impressions, that they were made, not by a living creature, but by the model of one which had been firmly pressed into the soft ground at slightly varying intervals. Since no footprints other than those of Sir Jeffrey were to be found in the vicinity, I was unable to account for the presence of the person who had made these impressions. I devoted myself to a close scrutiny of those footprints of Sir Jeffrey's which led up to the scene of the attack. It became apparent, immediately, that some one had _followed_ him ... some one who crept silently along behind the unsuspecting victim ... some one so clever that he placed his feet _almost exactly_ in the marks made by the baronet!