gone on atintervals ever since. It spreads like wildfire, of course, mysteriouschatter of this kind, and people began trespassing all over the estate,coming to see the wood, and making themselves a general nuisance.Notices of man-traps and spring-guns only seemed to increase theirpersistence; and--think of it," he snorted, "some local Research Societyactually wrote and asked permission for one of their members to spend anight in the wood! Bolder fools, who didn't write for leave, came andtook away bits of bark from the trees and gave them to clairvoyants, whoinvented in their turn a further batch of tales. There was simply no endto it all."
"Most distressing and annoying, I can well believe," interposed thedoctor.
"Then suddenly, the phenomena ceased as mysteriously as they had begun,and the interest flagged. The tales stopped. People got interested insomething else. It all seemed to die out. This was last July. I can tellyou exactly, for I've kept a diary more or less of what happened."
"Ah!"
"But now, quite recently, within the past three weeks, it has allrevived again with a rush--with a kind of furious attack, so to speak.It has really become unbearable. You may imagine what it means, and thegeneral state of affairs, when I say that the possibility of leaving hasoccurred to me."
"Incendiarism?" suggested Dr. Silence, half under his breath, but not solow that Colonel Wragge did not hear him.
"By Jove, sir, you take the very words out of my mouth!" exclaimed theastonished man, glancing from the doctor to me and from me to thedoctor, and rattling the money in his pocket as though some explanationof my friend's divining powers were to be found that way.
"It's only that you are thinking very vividly," the doctor said quietly,"and your thoughts form pictures in my mind before you utter them. It'smerely a little elementary thought-reading."
His intention, I saw, was not to perplex the good man, but to impresshim with his powers so as to ensure obedience later.
"Good Lord! I had no idea--" He did not finish the sentence, anddived again abruptly into his narrative.
"I did not see anything myself, I must admit, but the stories ofindependent eye-witnesses were to the effect that lines of light, likestreams of thin fire, moved through the wood and sometimes were seen toshoot out precisely as flames might shoot out--in the direction of thishouse. There," he explained, in a louder voice that made me jump,pointing with a thick finger to the map, "where the westerly fringe ofthe plantation comes up to the end of the lower lawn at the back of thehouse--where it links on to those dark patches, which are laurelshrubberies, running right up to the back premises--that's where theselights were seen. They passed from the wood to the shrubberies, and inthis way reached the house itself. Like silent rockets, one mandescribed them, rapid as lightning and exceedingly bright."
"And this evidence you spoke of?"
"They actually reached the sides of the house. They've left a mark ofscorching on the walls--the walls of the laundry building at the otherend. You shall see 'em tomorrow." He pointed to the map to indicate thespot, and then straightened himself and glared about the room as thoughhe had said something no one could believe and expected contradiction.
"Scorched--just as the faces were," the doctor murmured, lookingsignificantly at me.
"Scorched--yes," repeated the Colonel, failing to catch the rest of thesentence in his excitement.
There was a prolonged silence in the room, in which I heard the gurglingof the oil in the lamp and the click of the coals and the heavybreathing of our host. The most unwelcome sensations were creeping aboutmy spine, and I wondered whether my companion would scorn me utterly ifI asked to sleep on the sofa in his room. It was eleven o'clock, I sawby the clock on the mantelpiece. We had crossed the dividing line andwere now well in the movement of the adventure. The fight between myinterest and my dread became acute. But, even if turning back had beenpossible, I think the interest would have easily gained the day.
"I have enemies, of course," I heard the Colonel's rough voice breakinto the pause presently, "and have discharged a number ofservants---"
"It's not that," put in John Silence briefly.
"You think not? In a sense I am glad, and yet--there are some thingsthat can be met and dealt with--"
He left the sentence unfinished, and looked down at the floor with anexpression of grim severity that betrayed a momentary glimpse ofcharacter. This fighting man loathed and abhorred the thought of anenemy he could not see and come to grips with. Presently he moved overand sat down in the chair between us. Something like a sigh escaped him.Dr. Silence said nothing.
"My sister, of course, is kept in ignorance, as far as possible, of allthis," he said disconnectedly, and as if talking to himself. "But evenif she knew she would find matter-of-fact explanations. I only wish Icould. I'm sure they exist."
There came then an interval in the conversation that was verysignificant. It did not seem a real pause, or the silence real silence,for both men continued to think so rapidly and strongly that one almostimagined their thoughts clothed themselves in words in the air of theroom. I was more than a little keyed up with the strange excitement ofall I had heard, but what stimulated my nerves more than anything elsewas the obvious fact that the doctor was clearly upon the trail ofdiscovery. In his mind at that moment, I believe, he had already solvedthe nature of this perplexing psychical problem. His face was like amask, and he employed the absolute minimum of gesture and words. All hisenergies were directed inwards, and by those incalculable methods andprocesses he had mastered with such infinite patience and study, I feltsure he was already in touch with the forces behind these singularphenomena and laying his deep plans for bringing them into the open, andthen effectively dealing with them.
Colonel Wragge meanwhile grew more and more fidgety. From time to timehe turned towards my companion, as though about to speak, yet alwayschanging his mind at the last moment. Once he went over and opened thedoor suddenly, apparently to see if any one were listening at thekeyhole, for he disappeared a moment between the two doors, and I thenheard him open the outer one. He stood there for some seconds and made anoise as though he were sniffing the air like a dog. Then he closed bothdoors cautiously and came back to the fireplace. A strange excitementseemed growing upon him. Evidently he was trying to make up his mind tosay something that he found it difficult to say. And John Silence, as Irightly judged, was waiting patiently for him to choose his ownopportunity and his own way of saying it. At last he turned and facedus, squaring his great shoulders, and stiffening perceptibly.
Dr. Silence looked up sympathetically.
"Your own experiences help me most," he observed quietly.
"The fact is," the Colonel said, speaking very low, "this past weekthere have been outbreaks of fire in the house itself. Three separateoutbreaks--and all--in my sister's room."
"Yes," the doctor said, as if this was just what he had expected tohear.
"Utterly unaccountable--all of them," added the other, and then satdown. I began to understand something of the reason of his excitement.He was realising at last that the "natural" explanation he had held toall along was becoming impossible, and he hated it. It made him angry.
"Fortunately," he went on, "she was out each time and does not know. ButI have made her sleep now in a room on the ground floor."
"A wise precaution," the doctor said simply. He asked one or twoquestions. The fires had started in the curtains--once by the window andonce by the bed. The third time smoke had been discovered by the maidcoming from the cupboard, and it was found that Miss Wragge's clotheshanging on the hooks were smouldering. The doctor listened attentively,but made no comment.
"And now can you tell me," he said presently, "what your own feelingabout it is--your general impression?"
"It sounds foolish to say so," replied the soldier, after a moment'shesitation, "but I feel exactly as I have often felt on active servicein my Indian campaigns: just as if the house and all in it were in astate of siege; as though a concealed enemy were encamped about us--inambush somewhere." He
uttered a soft nervous laugh. "As if the next signof smoke would precipitate a panic--a dreadful panic."
The picture came before me of the night shadowing the house, and thetwisted pine trees he had described crowding about it, concealing somepowerful enemy; and, glancing at the resolute face and figure of the oldsoldier, forced at length to his confession, I understood something ofall he had been through before he sought the assistance of John Silence.
"And tomorrow, unless I am mistaken, is full moon," said the doctorsuddenly, watching the other's face for the effect of his apparentlycareless words.
Colonel Wragge gave an uncontrollable start, and his face for the firsttime showed
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