“Ah!” cried Herold. “It's a question of radioactivity, then! Remember Le
Bon's experiments, Sir Henry?”
But Miss Clarke was sorely mystified by this simple matter, and herself
repeated the experiments. Equally puzzled was Mme. Le Fabre. According
to her theory, a spirit wouldn't mind a little thing like a metal box.
Of them all, Dr. Malloy was the least disturbed; so decidedly so that
General Hume eyed him quizzically.
“Fine bunch of hallucinations, doctor.”
“Almost commonplace,” retorted Malloy.
Presently I mentioned that the Rhamda had come from the basement on the
night that Ariadne had materialised; and I showed that the only possible
route into the cellar was through the locked door in the breakfast
room, since the windows were all too small, and there was no other door.
Query: How had the Rhamda got there? Immediately they all became alert.
As Herold said:
“One thing or the other is true; either there is something downstairs
which has escaped you, Fenton, or else Avec is able to materialise in
any place he chooses. Let's look!”
We all went down except Charlotte, who went upstairs to stay with
Ariadne. By turns, each of us held the ring. And as we unlocked the
basement door we noted that the invisible, walking creature had reached
there before us.
Down the steps went those unseen little feet, jumping from one step to
the next just ahead of us all the way. When within three or four steps
of the bottom, the creature made one leap do for them all.
I had previously run an extension cord down into the basement, and both
compartments could now be lighted by powerful electric lamps. We gave
the place a quick examination.
“What's all this newly turned earth mean?” inquired Sir Henry, pointing
to the result of Jerome's efforts a few months before. And I explained
how he and Harry, on the chance the basement might contain some clue
as to the localisation of the Blind Spot, had dug without result in the
bluish clay.
Sir Henry picked up the spade, which had never been moved from where
Jerome had dropped it. And while I went on to tell about the pool of
liquids, which for some unknown reason had not seeped into the soil
since forming there, the Englishman proceeded to dig vigorously into the
heap I had mentioned.
The rest of us watched him thoughtfully. We remembered that Jerome's
digging had been done after Queen's disappearance. And the dog had
vanished in the rear room, the one in which Chick and Dr. Holcomb had
last been seen. Now, when Jerome had dug the clay from the basement
under this, the dining-room, he had thrown it through the once concealed
opening in the partition; had thrown the clay, that is, in a small heap
under the library. And--after Jerome had done this the phenomena had
occurred in the library, not in the dining-room.
“By Jove!” ejaculated General Hume, as I pointed this out. “This may be
something more, you know, that mere coincidence!”
Sir Henry said nothing, but continued his spading. He paid attention to
nothing save the heap that Jerome had formed. And with each spadeful he
bent over and examined the clay very carefully.
Miss Clarke and Mme. Le Fabre both remained very calm about it all.
Each from her own viewpoint regarded the work as more or less a waste of
time. But I noticed that they did not take their eyes from the spade.
Sir Henry stopped to rest. “Let me,” offered Herold; and went on as the
Englishman had done, holding up each spadeful for inspection. And it was
thus that we made a strange discovery.
We all saw it at the same time. Embedded in the bluish earth was a
small, egg-shaped piece of light-coloured stone. And protruding from its
upper surface was a tiny, blood-red pebble, no bigger than a good-sized
shot.
Herold thrust the point of his spade under the stone, to lift it up.
Whereupon he gave a queer exclamation.
“Well, that's funny!” holding the stone up in front of us. “That little
thing's as heavy as--as--it's HEAVIER than lead!”
Sir Henry picked the stone off the spade. Immediately the material
crumbled in his hands, as though rotting, so that it left only the
small, red pebble intact. Sir Henry weighed this thoughtfully in his
palm, then without a word handed it around.
We all wondered at the pebble. It was most astonishingly heavy. As I
say, it was no bigger than a fair-sized shot, yet it was vastly heavier.
Afterward we weighed it, upstairs, and found that the trifle weighed
over half a pound. Considering its very small bulk, this worked out to
be a specific gravity of 192.6 or almost ten times as heavy as the same
bulk of pure gold. And gold is heavy.
Inevitably we saw that there must be some connection between this
unprecedentedly heavy speck of material and that lighter-than-air gem
of mystery. For the time being we were careful to keep the two apart. As
for the unexplained footsteps, they were still slightly audible, as the
invisible creatures moved around the cellar.
At last we turned to go. I let the others lead the way. Thus I was
the last to approach the steps; and it was at that moment that I felt
something brush against my foot.
I stooped down. My hands collided with the thing that had touched me.
And I found myself clutching--
Something invisible--something which, in that brilliant light, showed
absolutely nothing to my eyes. But my hands told me I was grasping a
very real thing, as real as my fingers themselves.
I made some sort of incoherent exclamation. The others turned and peered
at me.
“What is it?” came Herold's excited voice.
“I don't know!” I gasped. “Come here.”
But Sir Henry was the first to reach me. Next instant he, too, was
fingering the tiny, unseen object. And such was his iron nerve and
superior self-control, he identified it almost at once.
“By the lord!”--softly. “Why, it's a small bird! Come here.”
Another second and they were all there. I was glad enough of it; for,
like a flash, with an unexpectedness that startles me even now as I
think of it--
The thing became visible. Right in my grasp, a little fluttering bird
came to life.