Out of the Dark
Page 47
‘Yes,’ he said; ‘good night.’
The air was bitter as he stepped out – bitter as death. Scores of carriage lamps twinkled as he descended the snowy steps, and a faint gust of music swept out of the darkness, silenced as the heavy doors closed behind him.
He turned west, shivering. A long smear of light bounded his horizon as he pressed toward it and entered the sordid avenue beneath the iron arcade which was even now trembling under the shock of an oncoming train. It passed overhead with a roar; he raised his hot eyes and saw, through the tangled girders above, the illuminated disk of the clock tower – all distorted – for the fever in him was disturbing everything – even the cramped and twisted street into which he turned, fighting for breath like a man stabbed through and through.
‘What folly!’ he said aloud, stopping short in the darkness. ‘This is fever – all this. She could not know where to come—’
Where two blind alleys cut the shabby block, worming their way inward from the avenue and from Tenth Street, he stopped again, his hands working at his coat.
‘It is fever, fever!’ he muttered. ‘She was not there.’
There was no light in the street save for the red fire lamp burning on the corner, and a glimmer from the Old Grapevine Tavern across the way. Yet all around him the darkness was illuminated with pale unsteady flames, lighting him as he groped through the shadows of the street to the blind alley. Dark old silent houses peered across the paved lane at their aged counterparts, waiting for him.
And at last he found a door that yielded, and he stumbled into the black passageway, always lighted on by the unsteady pallid flames which seemed to burn in infinite depths of night.
‘She was not there – she was never there,’ he gasped, bolting the door and sinking down upon the floor. And, as his mind wandered, he raised his eyes and saw the great bare room growing whiter and whiter under the uneasy flames.
‘It will burn as I burn,’ he said aloud – for the phantom flames had crept into his body. Suddenly he laughed, and the vast studio rang again.
‘Hark!’ he whispered, listening intently. ‘Who knocked?’
There was someone at the door; he managed to raise himself and drag back the bolt.
‘You!’ he breathed, as she entered hastily, her hair disordered and her black skirts powdered with snow,
‘Who but I?’ she whispered, breathless. ‘Listen! do you hear my mother calling me? It is too late; but she was with me to the end.’
Through the silence, from an infinite distance, came a desolate cry of grief – ‘Francoise!’
He had fallen back into his chair again, and the little busy flames enveloped him so that the room began to whiten again into a restless glare. Through it he watched her.
The hour struck, passed, struck and passed again. Other hours grew, lengthening into night. She sat beside him with never a word or sigh or whisper of breathing; and dream after dream swept him, like burning winds. Then sleep immersed him so that he lay senseless, sightless eyes still fixed on her. Hour after hour – and the white glare died out, fading to a glimmer. In densest darkness, he stirred, awoke, his mind quite clear, and spoke her name in a low voice.
‘Yes, I am here,’ she answered gently.
‘Is it death?’ he asked, closing his eyes.
‘Yes. Look at me, Philip.’
His eyes unclosed; into his altered face there crept an intense curiosity. For he beheld a glimmering shape, wide-winged and deep-eyed, kneeling beside him, and looking him through and through.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Stories in this volume come from these sources:
The King in Yellow (F. Tennyson Neely, 1895; British Edition: Chatto & Windus, 1895)
‘The Yellow Sign’
‘The Demoiselle d’Ys’
‘The Mask’
‘In the Court of the Dragon’
The Maker of Moons (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1896)
‘The Maker of Moons’
‘A Pleasant Evening’
The Mystery of Choice (Appleton, 1897; British Edition: Harper, 1898)
‘The Messenger’
‘Passeur’
‘The Key to Grief’
In Search of the Unknown (Harper Bros, 1904; British edition: A. Constable, 1905)
‘In Search of the Great Auk’
‘In Search of the Mammoth’
The Tracer of Lost Persons (D. Appleton & Co., 1906; British edition: John Murray, 1907)
‘Samaris’
‘The Seal of Solomon’
The Tree of Heaven (D. Appleton & Co., 1907; British edition: A. Constable, 1908)
‘Out of the Depths’
‘The Sign of Venus’
‘The Bridal Pair’
‘The Case of Mr Helmer’
Police!!! (D. Appleton & Co., 1915)
‘Un Peu d’Amour’
‘The Third Eye’
The Slayer of Souls (George H. Doran, 1920; British edition: Hodder & Stoughton, 1920 – printed in America)
‘Grey Magic’
‘The Death of Yarghouz Khan’
‘Death Trail’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chambers has been one of my favourite authors for as long as I’ve been reading books in this genre, and the idea for a collection of his stories goes back as far as March 1989, and a long phone call with Mike Ashley. We were casting about for ideas for the much-lamented Equation Chillers series, and Chambers seemed an ideal candidate. Mike supplied valuable biographical and bibliographical information on Chambers, and when I revived the project after some years (it hadn’t survived the Equation demise), he lent me E.F. Bleiler’s splendid collection of Robert W. Chambers stories. So, first, thanks to Mike.
The late Richard Dalby supplied more information on the author, and showed me pictures of him (the first I’d ever seen of Robert W. Chambers). Thanks to Richard as well.
Larry Loc in California sent an invaluable e-mail about Broadalbin, and my very grateful thanks go to him for throwing light on an unfamiliar side of Chambers and his life.
And thanks once again to David Brawn at HarperCollins, who has brought Robert W. Chambers (and some other authors) back to the light again.
It would be churlish of me not to give grateful thanks to three researchers – Everett Bleiler, Sam Moskowitz and Lee Weinstein – whose brief articles on Robert W. Chambers have been so helpful for this book. Chambers is a strange biographical bird – there isn’t much about him, particularly in Britain.
Also in this series
THE BLACK REAPER
Bernard Capes
DRACULA’S BRETHREN
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Fergus Hume,
Louisa May Alcott & Others
DRACULA’S BROOD
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, M. R. James,
Algernon Blackwood & Others
GHOSTS IN THE HOUSE
A. C. Benson & R. H. Benson
IN THE DARK
E. Nesbit
THE INVISIBLE EYE
Erckmann–Chatrian
THREE MEN IN THE DARK
Jerome K. Jerome, Barry Pain & Robert Barr
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower
22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor
Toronto, ON, M5H 4E3, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
India
HarperCollins India
A 75, Sector 57
Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201 301, India
http://www.harpercollins.co.in
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London, SE1 9GF
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com