Mr Holt raised his arms, as if he were exerting himself to make a forward movement,—but he remained rooted to the spot on which he stood.
‘I can’t!’ he cried.
‘You can’t.’—Why?’
‘It won’t let me.’
‘What won’t let you?’
‘The Beetle!’
Sydney moved till he was close in front of him. He surveyed him with eager eyes. I was just at his back. I heard him murmur,—possibly to me.
‘By George!—It’s just as I thought!—The beggar’s hypnotised!’
Then he said aloud, ‘Can you see it now?’
‘Yes.’
‘Where?’
‘Behind you.’
As Mr Holt spoke, I again heard, quite close to me, that buzzing sound. Sydney seemed to hear it too,—it caused him to swing round so quickly that he all but whirled me off my feet.
‘I beg your pardon, Marjorie, but this is of the nature of an unparalleled experience,—didn’t you hear something then?’
‘I did,—distinctly; it was close to me,—within an inch or two of my face.’
We stared about us, then back at each other,—there was nothing else to be seen. Sydney laughed, doubtfully.
‘It’s uncommonly queer. I don’t want to suggest that there are visions about, or I might suspect myself of softening of the brain. But—it’s queer. There’s a trick about it somewhere, I am convinced; and no doubt it’s simple enough when you know how it’s done,—but the difficulty is to find that out.—Do you think our friend over there is acting?’
‘He looks to me as if he were ill.’
‘He does look ill. He also looks as if he were hypnotised. If he is, it must be by suggestion,—and that’s what makes me doubtful, because it will be the first plainly established case of hypnotism by suggestion I’ve encountered.—Holt!’
‘Yes.’
‘That,’ said Sydney in my ear, ‘is the voice and that is the manner of a hypnotised man, but, on the other hand, a person under influence generally responds only to the hypnotist,—which is another feature about our peculiar friend which arouses my suspicions.’ Then, aloud, ‘Don’t stand there like an idiot,—come inside.’
Again Mr Holt made an apparently futile effort to do as he was bid. It was painful to look at him,—he was like a feeble, frightened, tottering child, who would come on, but cannot.
‘I can’t.’
‘No nonsense, my man! Do you think that this is a performance in a booth, and that I am to be taken in by all the humbug of the professional mesmerist? Do as I tell you,—come into the room.’
There was a repetition, on Mr Holt’s part, of his previous pitiful struggle; this time it was longer sustained than before,—but the result was the same.
‘I can’t!’ he wailed.
‘Then I say you can,—and shall! If I pick you up, and carry you, perhaps you will not find yourself so helpless as you wish me to suppose.’
Sydney moved forward to put his threat into execution. As he did so, a strange alteration took place in Mr Holt’s demeanour.
CHAPTER XXX
THE SINGULAR BEHAVIOUR OF MR HOLT
I WAS STANDING IN THE MIDDLE of the room, Sydney was between the door and me; Mr Holt was in the hall, just outside the doorway, in which he, so to speak, was framed. As Sydney advanced towards him he was seized with a kind of convulsion,—he had to lean against the side of the door to save himself from falling. Sydney paused, and watched. The spasm went as suddenly as it came,—Mr Holt became as motionless as he had just now been the other way. He stood in an attitude of febrile expectancy,—his chin raised, his head thrown back, his eyes glancing upwards,—with the dreadful fixed glare which had come into them ever since we had entered the house. He looked to me as if his every faculty was strained in the act of listening,—not a muscle in his body seemed to move; he was as rigid as a figure carved in stone. Presently the rigidity gave place to what, to an onlooker, seemed causeless agitation.
‘I hear!’ he exclaimed, in the most curious voice I had ever heard. ‘I come!’
It was as though he was speaking to someone who was far away. Turning, he walked down the passage to the front door.
‘Hollo!’ cried Sydney. ‘Where are you off to?’
We both of us hastened to see. He was fumbling with the latch; before we could reach him, the door was open, and he was through it. Sydney, rushing after him, caught him on the step and held him by the arm.
‘What’s the meaning of this little caper?—Where do you think you’re going now?’
Mr Holt did not condescend to turn and look at him. He said, in the same dreamy, faraway, unnatural tone of voice,—and he kept his unwavering gaze fixed on what was apparently some distant object which was visible only to himself.
‘I am going to him. He calls me.’
‘Who calls you?’
‘The Lord of the Beetle.’
Whether Sydney released his arm or not I cannot say. As he spoke, he seemed to me to slip away from Sydney’s grasp. Passing through the gateway, turning to the right, he commenced to retrace his steps in the direction we had come. Sydney stared after him in unequivocal amazement. Then he looked at me.
‘Well!—this is a pretty fix!—now what’s to be done?’
‘What’s the matter with him?’ I inquired. ‘Is he mad?’
‘There’s method in his madness if he is. He’s in the same condition in which he was that night I saw him come out of the Apostle’s window.’ Sydney has a horrible habit of calling Paul ‘the Apostle’; I have spoken to him about it over and over again,—but my words have not made much impression. ‘He ought to be followed,—he may be sailing off to that mysterious friend of his this instant.—But, on the other hand, he mayn’t, and it may be nothing but a trick of our friend the conjurer’s to get us away from this elegant abode of his. He’s done me twice already, I don’t want to be done again,—and I distinctly do not want him to return and find me missing. He’s quite capable of taking the hint, and removing himself into the Ewigkeit,—when the clue to as pretty a mystery as ever I came across will have vanished.’
‘I can stay,’ I said.
‘You?—Alone?’
He eyed me doubtingly,—evidently not altogether relishing the proposition.
‘Why not? You might send the first person you meet,—policeman, cabman, or whoever it is—to keep me company. It seems a pity now that we dismissed that cab.’
‘Yes, it does seem a pity.’ Sydney was biting his lip. ‘Confound that fellow! how fast he moves.’
Mr Holt was already nearing the end of the road.
‘If you think it necessary, by all means follow to see where he goes,—you are sure to meet somebody whom you will be able to send before you have gone very far.’
‘I suppose I shall.—You won’t mind being left alone?’
‘Why should I?—I’m not a child.’
Mr Holt, reaching the corner, turned it, and vanished out of sight. Sydney gave an exclamation of impatience.
‘If I don’t make haste I shall lose him. I’ll do as you suggest—dispatch the first individual I come across to hold watch and ward with you.’
‘That’ll be all right.’
He started off at a run,—shouting to me as he went.
‘It won’t be five minutes before somebody comes!’
I waved my hand to him. I watched him till he reached the end of the road. Turning, he waved his hand to me. Then he vanished, as Mr Holt had done.
And I was alone.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE TERROR BY DAY
MY FIRST IMPULSE, after Sydney’s disappearance, was to laugh. Why should he display anxiety on my behalf merely because I was to be the sole occupant of an otherwise empty house for a few minutes more or less,—and in broad daylight too! To
say the least, the anxiety seemed unwarranted.
I lingered at the gate, for a moment or two, wondering what was at the bottom of Mr Holt’s singular proceedings, and what Sydney really proposed to gain by acting as a spy upon his wanderings. Then I turned to re-enter the house. As I did so, another problem suggested itself to my mind,—what connection, of the slightest importance, could a man in Paul Lessingham’s position have with the eccentric being who had established himself in such an unsatisfactory dwelling-place? Mr Holt’s story I had only dimly understood,—it struck me that it would require a deal of understanding. It was more like a farrago of nonsense, an outcome of delirium, than a plain statement of solid facts. To tell the truth, Sydney had taken it more seriously than I expected. He seemed to see something in it which I emphatically did not. What was double Dutch to me, seemed clear as print to him. So far as I could judge, he actually had the presumption to imagine that Paul—my Paul!—Paul Lessingham!—the great Paul Lessingham!—was mixed up in the very mysterious adventures of poor, weak-minded, hysterical Mr Holt, in a manner which was hardly to his credit.
Of course, any idea of the kind was purely and simply balderdash. Exactly what bee Sydney had got in his bonnet, I could not guess. But I did know Paul. Only let me find myself face to face with the fantastic author of Mr Holt’s weird tribulations, and I, a woman, single-handed, would do my best to show him that whoever played pranks with Paul Lessingham trifled with edged tools.
I had returned to that historical front room which, according to Mr Holt, had been the scene of his most disastrous burglarious entry. Whoever had furnished it had had original notions of the resources of modern upholstery. There was not a table in the place,—no chair or couch, nothing to sit down upon except the bed. On the floor there was a marvellous carpet which was apparently of eastern manufacture. It was so thick, and so pliant to the tread, that moving over it was like walking on thousand-year-old turf. It was woven in gorgeous colours, and covered with—
When I discovered what it actually was covered with, I was conscious of a disagreeable sense of surprise.
It was covered with beetles!
All over it, with only a few inches of space between each, were representations of some peculiar kind of beetle,—it was the same beetle, over, and over, and over. The artist had woven his undesirable subject into the warp and woof of the material with such cunning skill that, as one continued to gaze, one began to wonder if by any possibility the creatures could be alive.
In spite of the softness of the texture, and the art—of a kind!—which had been displayed in the workmanship, I rapidly arrived at the conclusion that it was the most uncomfortable carpet I had ever seen. I wagged my finger at the repeated portrayals of the—to me!—unspeakable insect.
‘If I had discovered that you were there before Sydney went, I think it just possible that I should have hesitated before I let him go.’
Then there came a revulsion of feeling. I shook myself.
‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Marjorie Lindon, to even think such nonsense. Are you all nerves and morbid imaginings,—you who have prided yourself on being so strong-minded! A pretty sort you are to do battle for anyone.—Why, they’re only make-believes!’
Half involuntarily, I drew my foot over one of the creatures. Of course, it was nothing but imagination; but I seemed to feel it squelch beneath my shoe. It was disgusting.
‘Come!’ I cried. ‘This won’t do! As Sydney would phrase it,—am I going to make an idiot of myself?’
I turned to the window,—looking at my watch.
‘It’s more than five minutes ago since Sydney went. That companion of mine ought to be already on the way. I’ll go and see if he is coming.’
I went to the gate. There was not a soul in sight. It was with such a distinct sense of disappointment that I perceived this was so, that I was in two minds what to do. To remain where I was, looking, with gaping eyes, for the policeman, or the cabman, or whoever it was Sydney was dispatching to act as my temporary associate, was tantamount to acknowledging myself a simpleton,—while I was conscious of a most unmistakable reluctance to return within the house.
Common sense, or what I took for common sense, however, triumphed, and, after loitering for another five minutes, I did go in again.
This time, ignoring, to the best of my ability, the beetles on the floor, I proceeded to expend my curiosity—and occupy my thoughts—in an examination of the bed. It only needed a very cursory examination, however, to show that the seeming bed was, in reality, none at all,—or if it was a bed after the manner of the Easterns it certainly was not after the fashion of the Britons. There was no framework,—nothing to represent the bedstead. It was simply a heap of rugs piled apparently indiscriminately upon the floor. A huge mass of them there seemed to be; of all sorts, and shapes, and sizes,—and materials too.
The top one was of white silk,—in quality, exquisite. It was of huge size, yet, with a little compression, one might almost have passed it through the proverbial wedding ring. So far as space admitted I spread it out in front of me. In the middle was a picture,—whether it was embroidered on the substance or woven in it, I could not quite make out. Nor, at first, could I gather what it was the artist had intended to depict,—there was a brilliancy about it which was rather dazzling. By degrees, I realised that the lurid hues were meant for flames,—and, when one had got so far, one perceived that they were by no means badly imitated either. Then the meaning of the thing dawned on me,—it was a representation of a human sacrifice. In its way, as ghastly a piece of realism as one could see.
On the right was the majestic seated figure of a goddess. Her hands were crossed upon her knees, and she was naked from her waist upwards. I fancied it was meant for Isis. On her brow was perched a gaily-apparelled beetle—that ubiquitous beetle!—forming a bright spot of colour against her coppery skin,—it was an exact reproduction of the creatures which were imaged on the carpet. In front of the idol was an enormous fiery furnace. In the very heart of the flames was an altar. On the altar was a naked white woman being burned alive. There could be no doubt as to her being alive, for she was secured by chains in such a fashion that she was permitted a certain amount of freedom, of which she was availing herself to contort and twist her body into shapes which were horribly suggestive of the agony which she was enduring,—the artist, indeed, seemed to have exhausted his powers in his efforts to convey a vivid impression of the pains which were tormenting her.
‘A pretty picture, on my word! A pleasant taste in art the garnitures of this establishment suggest! The person who likes to live with this kind of thing, especially as a covering to his bed, must have his own notions as to what constitute agreeable surroundings.’
As I continued staring at the thing, all at once it seemed as if the woman on the altar moved. It was preposterous, but she appeared to gather her limbs together, and turn half over.
‘What can be the matter with me? Am I going mad? She can’t be moving!’
If she wasn’t, then certainly something was,—she was lifted right into the air. An idea occurred to me. I snatched the rug aside.
The mystery was explained!
A thin, yellow, wrinkled hand was protruding from amidst the heap of rugs,—it was its action which had caused the seeming movement of the figure on the altar. I stared, confounded. The hand was followed by an arm; the arm by a shoulder; the shoulder by a head,—and the most awful, hideous, wicked-looking face I had ever pictured even in my most dreadful dreams. A pair of baleful eyes were glaring up at mine.
I understood the position in a flash of startled amazement.
Sydney, in following Mr Holt, had started on a wild goose chase after all. I was alone with the occupant of that mysterious house,—the chief actor in Mr Holt’s astounding tale. He had been hidden in the heap of rugs all the while.
BOOK IV
In Pursuit
The Conclusion of the Matter Is Extracted from the Case-Book of the Hon. Augustus Champnell, Confidential Agent.
CHAPTER XXXII
A NEW CLIENT
ON THE AFTERNOON OF FRIDAY, June 2, 18—, I was entering in my case-book some memoranda having reference to the very curious matter of the Duchess of Datchet’s Deed-box. It was about two o’clock. Andrews came in and laid a card upon my desk. On it was inscribed ‘Mr Paul Lessingham.’
‘Show Mr Lessingham in.’
Andrews showed him in. I was, of course, familiar with Mr Lessingham’s appearance, but it was the first time I had had with him any personal communication. He held out his hand to me.
‘You are Mr Champnell?’
‘I am.’
‘I believe that I have not had the honour of meeting you before, Mr Champnell, but with your father, the Earl of Glenlivet, I have the pleasure of some acquaintance.’
I bowed. He looked at me, fixedly, as if he were trying to make out what sort of man I was. ‘You are very young, Mr Champnell.’
‘I have been told that an eminent offender in that respect once asserted that youth is not of necessity a crime.’
‘And you have chosen a singular profession,—one in which one hardly looks for juvenility.’
‘You yourself, Mr Lessingham, are not old. In a statesman one expects grey hairs.—I trust that I am sufficiently ancient to be able to do you service.’
He smiled.
‘I think it possible. I have heard of you more than once, Mr Champnell, always to your advantage. My friend, Sir John Seymour, was telling me, only the other day, that you have recently conducted for him some business, of a very delicate nature, with much skill and tact; and he warmly advised me, if ever I found myself in a predicament, to come to you. I find myself in a predicament now.’
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