In all my fifty years I had never experienced such a thing before.
“Tayler Kent,” I said to myself severely, “this is Anno Domini—nothing more nor less.”
Of course, I had been working hard—that might have accounted for it. The particularly complicated biography which I was just completing, had undoubtedly taken its toll, and my nerves were a bit jumpy. Could it be nervous dyspepsia, the curse of so many writers? I pooh-poohed the idea. Mental strain had never affected my digestion, so it could not be a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese or a fragment of an underdone potato, as Old Scrooge so eloquently describes it. And for four weeks running—that was the strange thing. Always the same—no matter whether I went to bed early or late—it was always the same.
I used every sort of subterfuge to elude them. I tried to trick them by keeping my light burning all night—sleeping in my great leather arm-chair—using the spare bed instead of my own comfortable room with its great windows overlooking the Chelsea Embankment—but no matter what I did they would not be fooled.
I turned night into day, but I could not escape. Every time I closed my eyes and dozed off, there they were. Always the same. The woman pleading—the man in turns commanding and servile. Was it a dream or an actual visitation by some tortured spirits? They seemed to be trying to convince me of something—desperately in need of release from some horror.
This dream—if it can be described as such—never lasted long—and on waking I found that the strange feeling of hypnotism remained. Their figures were shadowy—and I was never able to make out whether they belonged to this age or not. But their faces were vivid, and their eyes seemed to be compelling me to obey them. I began to fear I might be mesmerized into an act of violence. Then I began to see those suffering, haunted faces when I was not asleep, and I knew there was only one thing to be done. I might have consulted my doctor, but I knew that the hard-headed old Scot would have laughed at me and prescribed a good strong tonic. I might have told the story to those sceptics at the Club and been ragged out of my fears. I might even have sought aid from the Society of Psychical Research. But I did none of these things. I decided—coward that I was—to run away. I would not spend another night in the place. I would go to my cottage on the Romney Marsh, and let them follow me there if they could; that is, if I ever succeeded in getting there myself, as the weather was not promising—eleven o’clock and it was already snowing hard. The eight o’clock news had pronounced several roads impassable, and the papers, never missing a chance of pessimism, were heralding depressions everywhere and recorded the fact that it was the worst November for forty years.
All this in no way damped my determination to escape, and as time went on I began to feel quite elated at the thought of really having tricked my possessive ghosts at last. They were driving me from Town in a biting blizzard, but at least in my lonely comfortable cottage in New Romney I should get a good night’s rest and be able to finish my work in peace and quiet.
So an hour later, like a truant schoolboy, I sneaked into my club in St. James’s for an early lunch.
I successfully avoided the Club bores—found a quiet table and had an excellent if hurried meal, for I knew there was no time to waste, and in this steady snow it was very doubtful if I could get out of London at all.
On leaving the Club I collected my letters and gave instructions to the hall porter.
“You’ve not been in for some time, sir,” he remarked. “If you hadn’t come in to-day I was going to give you a ring. There’s been a package here waiting for you for the past ten days or more. I hope it’s not important because Captain Carnaby, who left it, told me to lock it up till you come.” So saying, he unlocked his cubby-hole and handed me a well-sealed parcel, with an accompanying letter, which I opened straight away.
My Dear Kent,
Ages since we met. Must get together soon. I’ll contact you, as my movements uncertain per usual. Do me a great favour. When next you go down to the coast by car, please take the enclosed package and leave it at address named. Won’t take you out of your way, as you pass Wrotham. You’d find the bloke it goes to very interesting, if you see him. As I daren’t send it by post, you’ll know contents are not without value. Anyway, I’ve risked my old carcass to get it. Bless you & Good Tenting.
Carnaby.
PS. I am learning at last to be cautious. So please burn this note after reading.
I turned to the blazing fire and obeyed instructions, after lighting a cigarette with it as excuse. Then I asked the porter how the Captain was looking.
“Just the same, sir. Hadn’t seen him for six years, when in he walks, with his ‘Morning, Bill, how are you? Any mail?’ Just as though he’d been in every day. Both them Carnabys was nice members. Proper gentlemen always—and clever. But one never knew what either of them was going to be up to next.”
I agreed, and stuffing the package into my overcoat pocket, went out to collect my car from the garage, wondering what joke Carnaby was practising upon some gentleman at Wrotham, for I had read the address. No name—but just:
To/The Master of the Macabre
At/The Old Palace of Wrotham.
CHAPTER TWO
i meet the master
Snow—that had been piling up for days … then Rain and Sleet and a bitter cold Gale … a Blizzard that swept the Sunny South and ranged up across the Midlands to the North, turning the roads of every British county into icebound tracks of peril.
The manager of the Old Chelsea Garage certified me as insane for taking out the car. “New Romney?” he scoffed. “You’ll never make it, sir. If you send me a telegram to-morrow morning telling me you’ve got there—I’ll wire you a fiver.”
“And if I don’t—I’ll send you the same amount,” I replied boastfully.
I lost my bet, as you shall hear—though the obstinate devil that drove me to the attempt did me the best turn in the world—for had I not been so foolhardy, I should never have met the Master.
Yes—Snow—Rain—Sleet and a shrieking Gale.
But the star turn of that tempestuous troupe did not make its appearance till my car, after hours of ploughing and bulldozing, skidded a waltzy way to the top of Wrotham Hill—and then—Enter Blanketing FOG—a fog that obliterated the whiteness of the snow and showed the dark night what the phrase ‘Pitch Darkness’ really meant.
Knowing the road well, I decided not to attempt the steep and very dangerous descent, but the car took things into its own hands (or rather wheels), for it began tobogganing broadside-on—down and down. Neither brake nor steering wheel had any control, and the chains, which the garage man had insisted on lending me, refused to function. I tried to keep to the left of the road which had been cut into the steep hill-side, for to skid to the right meant a sheer drop into the valley below.
Beyond the windscreen I could see nothing. The fog was black velvet. I confess I was afraid. Yes—very frightened. Then there came a succession of bumps, followed by a terrific jerk which threw me sideways across the next seat and against the door.
There followed a sound of soft thunder—as though some playful giant had emptied a gasometer filled with castor sugar. A heavy thud—and out went my lights. A gigantic snow-slide had fallen from the hill and enveloped the car. I was completely buried. At the same time an excruciating pain began to shoot in my ankle. I tried to wrench my foot clear from the brake and gear handles, but it was firmly wedged. I managed to get at my lighter from the car pocket, and by its glimmer freed my foot from its steel grip. The car was lying on its left side, so that the right doors and windows were above my head. The driving-window and windscreen showed heavy packed solid snow, but the back window was but thinly covered at one corner, and I realized that this door would be my only chance of escape. I had fortunately provided myself with a flask of whisky against the cold, and after a deep pull at it, I felt better able to combat the red-hot needles shooting in my ankle, which was either broken or badly sprained, for it was already swollen. To ease it I kicked off my righ
t shoe, though realizing I should never get it on again. I put out my lighter to save the precious light, but found the darkness too overpowering, so lit it again for a cigarette, by the glow of which I started operations to extricate myself.
I got over the seat and using the near door as a floor, I stood upon my left leg, and pressed my shoulder against the door above my head. It gave about half an inch, only to bring down a fresh avalanche, but I at length lowered the glass and set to scooping the snow clearer with my hand.
I suppose it must have taken me half an hour to get out of the car, close the window and door again, and to abandon all hope of getting at my luggage, except for my beloved typewriter which had travelled under the seat. For the rest—I left them locked up in the ‘boot.’
How cold it was as I rested for a few minutes in the drift which was piling up in the fast-falling snow, but I tilted the contents of the flask down my throat, said “Good night” to my car which I could feel had already vanished beneath its chilly pall, and set off, half crawling, half hopping and falling, down the dangerous road.
At first I had no means of guessing how far down the hill I might be, since the fog was too thick for any sight of the village lights, so my only hope was to keep to the road if possible until I could feel its steepness running out on to the level. More by the grace of God than my own feeling, I eventually reached this objective with many a tumble and more bad language, but without rolling down the precipice on my right. No sooner was I sure that I had made flat ground than I began groping for the finger post at the cross-roads, which directed one off the main road towards Wrotham Village, but this I failed to find, so turning sharp right I plunged on blindly, sinking waist-deep in snow pockets and floundering into submerged hedges and fencing, which proved I had missed the road and was crossing the fields.
At last I made out that I had involved myself in a farmyard, for I fell into a pig-sty and was indignantly snuffled at by a ferocious sow who objected to trespassers near her squealing litter. My next lap of crawling and stumbling was taken up short by my knocking my nose against the door of a shed from which came the plaintive lowing of a sick cow, and through the chinks I could see the welcome light of a hanging lantern, which I promptly made up my mind to borrow, in order to find the farmhouse the easier.
This I soon did, and a fine old place it seemed, built of grey stone. Passing a mullioned window, I reached a heavily iron-studded oak door with a huge knocker. Either I was so weak from pain and my late exertions, or this implement was weighty and stiff, but I remember the effort it took to lift it. It slipped from my wet gloves with a resounding thwack, which struck me as being too abrupt for politeness, and it was while wondering if I could manage to lift it again that I noticed by the lantern’s light, an iron bell-pull at the far side of the door. I hopped across to it and with my last ounce of strength, as I afterwards discovered, gave it a tug, and heard a deep bell echoing through the recesses of the building, which brought to life animal noises from the farmyard. Then I found that I could not release my hold. My fingers were frozen and would not unbend. I heard steps echoing across what proved to be a flagstoned hall, but before the door could be opened, the lantern fell with a crash on the paving, and I sank down against the wall with the bell-pull still in my clenched fist.
It was certainly a surprise to Mr. Hoadley when he swung open the great door, for there I lay in a grotesque attitude, my clothes white with snow, one shoe missing, and my face blue with cold, torn, scratched and bleeding, a broken lantern one side of me and a neat typewriter case on the other.
Not a word could he get out of me, because I had fainted. Checking up later with Mr. Hoadley, I found that it took about three minutes for me to unthaw, physically and mentally. When I came to myself I found myself sitting in a high-backed Jacobean oak arm-chair in front of a fire of logs, in a bare but handsome flagstoned hall.
An elderly man hovered over me, and as the last thing I remembered was the tread of the farmer crossing the hall in answer to my knock and ringing, I gathered that he was the man himself. But anything less like a farmer I could not imagine. True, he wore heavy iron-shod boots, which echoed on the stone floor, but his black suit gave the impression of an old-fashioned butler. I will go further for a more accurate description. Put him in a gown with bobbles on it and no sleeves, faced with black velvet upon black alpaca, and you would have the perfect Dean’s Verger for any cathedral. His face was pale and thin, surmounted by a shock of flowing white hair, which gave him great dignity, but softened into good humour by a pair of somewhat weak eyes whose crow’s-feet danced with merriment. His nose was long and seemed to be twitching after distant scents, while his slender hands would have given credit to an artist. All this I took in by degrees, for at first I was absorbed in gazing at a large besocked and besoaked right foot which came between me and my vision of the comforting fire. It was looking at me from the top of a much-cushioned stool. As I stared at it, a sharp pain made it clear to me that this curiosity belonged to me, as its red-hot needles, mentioned before, brought back recollection of what had happened to me.
“Drink this, sir,” said the gentle voice of the Dean’s Verger.
It was then that I noticed his delicate hands, as they fingered an exquisite tear-drop glass of life-giving brandy. “I managed to get a little of it through your clenched teeth—but you was not able to help yourself—not that I’m complainin’, sir—it’s you what ought to do that—what with your broke ankle and tored face. That’s right, sir, now another little sip, and if you could manage to make it a gulp you’d feel the benefit. I don’t know what you think, sir, but it seems to me that storms didn’t ought to be so aggressive—at least, not with private individuals like yourself, sir. ’Tisn’t as though you was a Lord Mayor’s Banquet or a political meetin’ in the Albert Hall. You was all alone with only one shoe, a very good make of portable typewriter, and a lantern you brought from the cowshed. Now, sir—try again—and if I may give you a toast? Down with stormy aggression against individuals.”
I then told him about my escape from the car, and began to apologize for the trouble I was giving him and to thank him for his kindness, but he soothingly dismissed this, telling me not to worry my head over nothing.
“Persevere with the brandy, sir. It will set you up again, before we deals with your poor foot.”
He was interrupted by the most violent shrieking of the storm. He chuckled. “You’re quite safe here, sir. These walls have stood up to storm since the thirteenth century. They built thick and strong in them days. Still, I doubt if they ever heard worse wind than this.” He listened for a moment, shaking his old head, then turning to me nodded slowly and deliberately as he added: “It’s my belief you only just got here in time, sir. There’s a limit to what the strongest can stand, and you must have reached it when you reached up for our bell-pull. Lyin’ down in a storm like this is puttin’ money in the undertakers’ pockets, and who wants to make them rich? Don’t do it again, sir. It’s a bad habit.”
I told him it was the last thing I wanted to do. “I was up in the Arctic two years ago—pretty tough going, too—but as I crossed those fields between the main road and your farm, I came to the conclusion that the Land of the Midnight Sun was Margate Sands on a hot summer’s day compared to this. Worst snowstorm I ever met. If I hadn’t stolen your lantern from the cowshed, which at least showed me your door, I think your local undertaker would have made a deal out of me.”
“And now, sir,” went on the old man, “if you feel strong enough I’d like to take a good look at that foot. By a cursory feel over it with the sock on, which I took the liberty of doin’ while you was ‘out,’ I should give it as a ‘clean break,’ and should be set at once, if you are willing for me to attempt it. I tried to get the doctor who lives some way from here, but the storm has put the phone out of order. I feel quite confident in setting it as well as he could. You see, sir, I started life as a doctor—a ship’s doctor. That, of course, was before I met the ‘Master’
and turned servant.”
“I see,” I nodded. “I didn’t think you looked the typical farm owner.”
“Farm owner? Me?” repeated the old man. He smiled and went on to explain: “And this place isn’t really a farm, neither. Just a fine old house which the Master bought, and there happened to be a farmyard that went along of it. I know very little about farming, though the Master has a smatterin’ if I may so say. He has a natural smatterin’ of everything. I’ve seen his smatterin’s at work—all over the world, and without boastin’ on his behalf, I assure you that his smatterin’s in many walks of life as often as not have beat the professionals at their own games.” All this time he had been tenderly removing the sock, and passing his slender fingers over my injured, swollen foot. I felt that he was chatting quietly to take my mind from the pain, which he knew I was suffering.
“So you were a ship’s doctor?” I inquired.
“And I look no more like one than a farmer, eh, sir?” he chuckled. “I sensibly give it up—two or three voyages, that’s all—but I felt there was no career in it for me. I had not got that bedside manner so essential.”
“I disagree with you there,” I said. “You are handling my misfortune to the manner born.”
“Very polite of you to say so,” he replied, “but I know my limits, and my manners such as they are would never have opened a door in Harley Street. You’ll laugh when you hear what the Master says I has the manners of. Not in these boots, mind you, which I put on to light the oil-stove in the cowshed, but in me house pumps—says I looks and carries on for all the world like a cathedral head verger.”
“How very strange,” I said, smiling.
“No, sir, I can see what he means and I don’t dislike it. You don’t think so, sir?”
“I do, and since you like it, I’ll confess that I thought exactly the same thing. When I could not somehow place you as a farmer, I thought what a wonderful figure for a dean’s verger. That’s why I said ‘how very strange.’”
The Master of the Macabre Page 2
