STATEMENT OF DR. DAMAR GREEFE (CONCLUDED)
A month later I found myself installed at the Bell House, a property
belonging to the Friar's Park estate, and in the commodious apartments
of this establishment I had ample room for the accommodation of my
library and my priceless specimens. Nahémah was likewise an inmate of
the Bell House; but recognizing the precarious nature of my tenure, I
had taken the precaution of retaining the suburban villa to which I
have already referred; its modest rental proving no tax upon my
greatly increased resources.
Blackmail, I hear you exclaim! And, so, if you wish, you may construe
my behavior, since I reply--"Science first, science last!" To have
been deprived of the means to pursue my experiments at this time would
have been, I believed, to impoverish the world. For not even science
could reveal to me that my life's work was destined to perish amid the
ashes of the Bell House.
My studies had temporarily led me into a by-path, and apprehending
that a great international struggle was imminent, I had turned my
investigations in a new direction. My great work, whose publication
would have shattered so many scientific idols, was complete. The life
history of Nahémah had crowned my inquiries into the embryology,
physiology and psychology of _psycho-hybrids_. In fact, the presence
of my strange protegée promised to become something of an incubus.
Later, I was to realize that she was an ever-present means of renewing
those funds which the costly character of my new studies absorbed at
rather an alarming rate. Perhaps I neglected my self-imposed task of
studying the mental and physical development of Nahémah; for, I must
admit that lost in my new work I presently awakened to the fact that
she had outgrown the control which I had formerly exercised over her.
There were unpleasant episodes. For example, in spite of those
precautions which I adopted, and of the ceaseless vigilance of Cassim,
the existence of a female inmate of the Bell House was soon a popular
scandal throughout Upper Crossleys. For this I cared nothing; but far
more perturbing was Nahémah's behavior on the occasion of a certain
visit of Sir Burnham's legal adviser to Friar's Park.
In some way she secretly gained admission to the house (the episode
occurred during that Sothic month whose annual coming I had learned to
dread). Sir Burnham actually saw her in the chapel. He sent a
messenger post-haste to the Bell-House, and I finally discovered
Nahémah in hiding and insisted upon her immediate return. This was
only one of several instances of her perverse behavior, which truly
seemed to be inspired by some demon bent upon the destruction of both
of us.
Her mental activity was extraordinary, and unknown to me she had
followed my new researches with that intellectual ardor which she
directly inherited from the Coverlys. Her ferocious jealousy of any
infringement upon those family rights denied her by her father had
also developed, it seemed; and one night, shortly after the scene to
which I have referred, entering my study she placed before me a
proposal to which I listened with absolute horror.
I should explain that Sir Burnham, placing the repute of his house and
that of his heir above all other considerations (with one possible
exception: the necessity for concealing the appalling truth from his
wife) had consented to make arrangements for the support of Nahémah on
the understanding that her existence was to remain a profound secret
from the world. It was upon this understanding that I leased the Bell
House. And although, in certain wild indiscretions, I had recognized
in Nahémah the symptoms of revolt against such a monastic existence,
because of absorption in my new studies I had not realized how deep
was her resentment of this enforced anonymity. Certainly I had never
grasped the power and the depth of her hatred of her brother, Roger
Coverly.
Now, on this fateful night, in one of the semi-insane outbursts which
I had learned to dread, she poured out her loathing and detestation of
her brother. She was a Coverly (such was the gist of her plaint) and
the doors of Friar's Park were closed to her; the world knew nothing
of her existence. In the event of the death of Sir Burnham, then Roger
would inherit the property, and complete disaster would be our lot.
To condense the purport of her demand, it was this: that I should test
the efficacy of my new discovery by removing this objectionable
obstacle from her path!
Of my subsequent behavior I offer no defense. I am not prepared to
admit that I was forced into action by the forceful personality of my
protegée; in fact, I state emphatically that a chance interview with
the heir during one of his visits to Friar's Park led me to regard the
matter in a new light and from a standpoint almost identical with that
of Nahémah.
How warning was conveyed to Sir Burnham I know not, unless by some
indiscretion of Nahémah, but, instead of returning to the public
school from which he had come to Friar's Park, Roger Coverly was sent
abroad in haste, accompanied by a private tutor. The date of his
departure corresponded with that which I associate with the beginning
of my downfall.
Nahémah threatened to present herself to her mother, and painfully
aware that such a course (which, nevertheless, I recognized her to be
quite capable of adopting) would spell disaster, I fell in with her
wishes. Two months later we were established, Nahémah, Cassim and I,
within two miles of the new residence of Roger Coverly and his tutor
in Basle.
The circumstances attendant upon the death of Roger Coverly have
hitherto been veiled in obscurity, and although Sir Burnham suspected
the truth, in the first place he had no evidence, and in the second
place, because of the existence of Nahémah, I knew that he dared not
attempt to prove it.
Briefly, I had perfected that Chinese poison called in the northern
provinces _hlangkûna_. By a series of dangerous experiments I had
convinced myself that it was almost identical with _contarella_, the
preparation made notorious by the Borgia family. Therefore I concluded
that _contarella_ came to Rome from the East, possibly via Palestine.
Inoculating with _hlangkûna_, I found, produced death in two hours
(_contarella_--one hour and forty-five minutes) leaving no trace by
which the means employed could be discovered. Self-inoculation by the
subject was the method which I adopted--and which Cæsar Borgia had
adopted before me; so that no chain of evidence existed.
All that was necessary was for a scarf, a collar or other article of
apparel coming in direct contact with the skin of the subject, to be
placed in my possession. (A glove was the Borgia's favorite medium.)
It was painted with _hlangkûna_ and replaced. When worn, an intense
irritation was produced and a cutaneous eruption which, if scratched
even very lightly, resulted in a puncture of the skin sufficient to
allow the inimical elements of the poison to obtain access to the
system of the subject.
I do not propose to enter into details, but so it was that Roger
Coverly died. Following a brief sojourn abroad, we presently returned
again to the Bell House. This gratification of her bloodthirsty
desires had done no more than to whet the feline appetite of Nahémah,
and she forced me to impose new and almost insupportable conditions
upon Sir Burnham, with the result, as is known, that from being a very
wealthy man he became an impoverished one.
I even held a mortgage on Friar's Park on behalf of Nahémah; for by
this time I had fully recognized the fact that like a second
Frankenstein, I had raised up a monster which sooner or later must
devour me.
Her indiscretions threatened daily to result in exposure; and after
the death of Sir Burnham, which occurred a short time later, these
increased in number and audacity. The dying baronet had impressed upon
his wife the necessity of following my guidance in all things.
Undoubtedly he died hoping that Lady Coverly might live out her days
in ignorance of the grim secret of the Bell House. This dying wish of
his was gratified. The loss of her son, so closely followed by that of
her husband, prostrated Lady Coverly in a mental illness from which
she never recovered, although I exercised all my skill in an endeavor
to restore her reason. She spent the remainder of her days in a
semi-comatose state which so closely resembled death that to this
present moment I do not know the exact hour at which dissolution took
place.
In the man Hawkins, once a game-keeper of Sir Burnham's, I found an
instrument ready to my hand. I closed the Park to the public and took
all those precautions for preserving my secret which prudence
dictated: this at the cost of a reputation in Upper Crossleys which
few men would have survived, but which troubled me not at all, since
it left me undisturbed to those studies which to me were everything.
The death of Sir Burnham, however, had raised a new danger; for in the
person of Sir Marcus Coverly, the heir, I perceived a formidable
enemy, who because of his wealth might redeem Friar's Park, and,
because of the fact that he belonged to a cadet line, might care
nothing for the skeleton in Sir Burnham's cupboard.
I have said that science is callous, and I admit that it needed little
prompting from Nahémah to urge me to take the next step. It is worthy
of note, however, from a scientific point of view, that whilst I was
prompted by motives of expediency, she was actuated solely by a lust
to destroy everything that bore the name of Coverly.
My experiments for some time past had been directed to the discovery
of new instruments of warfare. Particularly I had addressed myself to
the preparation of a _gas_ which should possess the peculiar
properties of _hlangkûna_, and by inhalation affect the lung tissues,
thus producing instantaneous results. In this I had succeeded a short
time prior to Sir Burnham's death, and one of the future belligerents
had approached me.
For the purpose of carrying out experiments, a specially designed gun
was brought from Essen and installed in a secluded part of the Park.
Artillery specialists carried out a number of tests with shells of
various patterns; but because I bluntly declined to divulge the
formula for the making of "L.K. Vapor" (so I had named it) until
substantial guarantees were given, negotiations were broken off. I
retained, however, the model howitzer as well as a number of special
light shells. The gun was one of extraordinary accuracy, and it was
possible, given suitable weather conditions, mechanically to train it
upon a given target and without any preliminary "searching" to score a
certain hit.
I caused the piece to be mounted on the top platform of the tower at
Friar's Park, and having completed those mathematical calculations
with the result of which Mr. Addison has since become familiar, I
awaited the return of the new baronet from Russia. Shortly after his
arrival, I invited him to visit Upper Crossleys.
He refused--in terms which provoked an outburst on Nahémah's part more
violent than I had ever witnessed. But on his final return to England,
she made it her business closely to study his habits and movements.
She sought, feverishly, for some pregnable point of attack.
_Hlangkûna_ was tried three times--and three times failed. It was the
distorted genius of Nahémah, however, which finally dictated a new
line of action. She learned that Sir Marcus was paying attention to
Isobel Merlin, the fiancée of Eric Coverly (who in the event of Sir
Marcus's death would inherit the title).
Nahémah propounded to me a theory so strange and so novel that I was
lost in admiration of that brilliant intellect which, partly inherited
from her forebears, was stimulated and brightened by a cat-like
cunning which belonged to the other side of her hybrid personality.
In that district where my suburban villa was situated there were
several other isolated establishments which their owners experienced
some difficulty in leasing; and one of these--namely the Red
House--particularly suited the purpose which Nahémah had in view. The
extensive resources now at my disposal enabled me to dispense with the
usual formalities which beset the lessee and to obtain possession of
the Red House without even appearing in person.
The deeper to complicate the issue, Nahémah carried out the whole of
the negotiations over the telephone, and hers was the "voice"
afterwards rendered notorious by the press, which issued the
directions culminating in the death of Marcus Coverly.
I recognize that the inquiries of the police have placed in your
possession many particulars respecting this matter, so that I will not
repeat them here but will content myself with explaining the nature of
the device employed. In this case, for the removal of the subject, I
had obtained possession of an old telephone and had adjusted it to
meet my requirements.
In a recess of the room which I caused Sir Marcus Coverly to visit at
the Red House, I placed this duplicate telephone; the false cable
communicating with the instrument was attached to a plug in the wall
above, but communicated with a gas cylinder in the adjoining room. In
short, what appeared to be cable was in reality tubing and the act of
taking the receiver from the hook released through the mouthpiece a
sufficient quantity of L.K. Vapor to have asphyxiated a dozen men.
In order to insure the subject's receiving the benefit of the whole
discharge, I had caused a very heavy curtain to be draped in this
recess, which thus became a rough gas-chamber. Following the first
discharge, the subject would fall to the floor and the gas being a
heavy one he would there receive his _quietus_.
The only detail which occasioned much thought was that of the bell by
which Sir Marcus should be summoned to this prepared telephone; for it
formed no part of the plan for myself to appear anywhere in the
neighborhood at the time of the experiment. I was of course compelled
to pay a secret visit to the Red House for the purpose of installing
the telephone device, and at the same time I installed the bell. This
was worked from a small storage battery and I arranged that by the
opening of the garage door the bell would be put in motion and by the
closing of the door at the end of the same building the ringing would
cease.
A simple contrivance screwed to both doors made this possible, but I
know not by whose hand the ringing would have been accomplished if it
had not been for one of those brilliant suggestions of Nahémah's,
which hovered between the domain of genius and that of fiendishness.
She proposed that she should ring up the local police depôt and ask
the constable on that beat to lock the garage, thus making him the
direct instrument for the removal of Sir Marcus!
I knew, since I myself had been a resident in this district, that a
constable patrolled College Road at an hour roughly corresponding with
that at which it was proposed to cause Sir Marcus to visit the Red
House; and because all strategy is based upon the clock, a brief
survey of the facts convinced me that Nahémah's plan was feasible.
Thus, it was Police-Constable Bolton, whose evidence has appeared in
the press, who actually killed Sir Marcus Coverly! I come now to the
dangerous attitude adopted by Nahémah immediately after the event.
We had had a case of suitable dimensions made for containing the body,
and had had it delivered at the Red House garage, where it was
received by a district messenger instructed for the purpose. Upon me
devolved the task of carrying the body from the supper-room to the
garage--a task which I performed shortly after the departure of
Police-Constable Bolton. I packed the body, removed the telephone and
also all traces of the bell-device.
The same carter had instructions to call for the case in the morning,
and the garage door was left open to enable him to collect it. In
short, except for these two essential visits, one before and one after
the experiment, there was no occasion for myself or Nahémah to appear
in the neighborhood of the Red House.
But that cat-like spirit of impish mischief which possessed her at
this season (and especially at night) together with an almost insane
joy which she took in gloating over the destruction of her cousin,
had led her, contrary to my special injunctions, to haunt the
vicinity on the evening of the experiment. Thus, she not only
witnessed the arrival of the doomed man, but also saw the constable
perform the duty imposed upon him. This might have mattered little,
had it not been for the presence of Mr. Addison, whom an unkind fate
at this juncture involved in the matter.
For Mr. Addison Nahémah conceived one of those sudden and violent
infatuations which characterized the feline element of her complex
mentality. Unknown to me, Nahémah followed Mr. Addison to his home in
the neighborhood and indeed was actually seen by him, I believe, on
two occasions. Thus far all might yet have been well; but when later I
entered the Red House to carry out the only dangerous part of the
scheme, to my consternation Nahémah insisted upon accompanying me.
Prompted by that destructive devil which sometimes possessed her she
not only (unknown to me) painted a figure of a cat upon the crate, but
also she placed an image of Bâst in the box with the dead man!
The premature discovery of Sir Marcus, owing to the accident at the
docks, prevented the plan being carried out in all its details, but
when, through certain rumors which began to creep into the press, I
learned of the presence of the statuette, I began to realize the
dangerous position in which I was placed and the handicap of such an
accomplice.
As a result of the scene which ensued, Nahémah, still under the worst
influences of her hybrid disposition, openly visited Mr. Addison and
recovered the image of Bâst! This she did in circumstances which
hopelessly compromised both of us, since they revealed in a hitherto
faultless plan the presence of an unsuspected party and directed the
police inquiries into an entirely new channel.
I thought it expedient to retire immediately to the Bell House, which
during my brief absence in London had been in charge of Cassim, all
approaches to Friar's Park being carefully guarded by the man Hawkins.
At this point I may touch upon a previous danger which had been met
and overcome. Provision had been made in the will of Sir Burnham for
the retention by his widow of Friar's Park and the revenues thereof;
but since in the event of her death I should have been compelled to
appear in the character of the mortgagee, it was contrary to our
interests that Lady Coverly should die whilst any heir to the estate
remained alive.
Nevertheless, despite all my care, this stricken woman had died six
months prior to the first return of Sir Marcus from Russia. Since she
had been a helpless invalid during the last years of her life I
experienced little difficulty in concealing the fact of her death.
Cassim and I interred her by night in the family mausoleum where she
lies beside her husband.
In these circumstances, judge of my feelings when, shortly after the
premature discovery termed in the press "the _Oritoga_ mystery," Mr.
Addison one day presented himself at the Bell House! His avowed
intention of calling upon Lady Coverly left me no alternative. Never
in all his days, not even when he miraculously escaped the L.K. Vapor
at the Abbey Inn, did Mr. Addison stand so near to death as there--in
my study!
Let me explain the situation more fully. The fatal Sothic month which
I have learned to regard with horror, commenced on the twenty-third
ultimo and does not terminate for another five days. Nahémah was--and
still remains--"possessed." You will understand my employment of the
term.
On the night preceding this visit of Mr. Addison's, I had traced her
nocturnal movements by the howling of many dogs, and fearful of some
indiscretion which might place my neck in a noose, I had followed her.
I found her in a narrow footpath which leads to the Abbey Inn!
Despite entreaties, threats, she declined to give any explanation of
her behavior. But finally I prevailed upon her to return to the Bell
House. The appearance of Mr. Addison on the following morning opened
my eyes to the truth. With the scandal still attaching to the names of
Edward Hines and another man, called, I believe, Adams, a subject for
gossip throughout the neighborhood, I could not at so perilous a time
risk the consequences of a third intrigue. I determined that Mr.
Addison could better be spared by the community than I. Nahémah's next
insanity--an open visit to the Abbey Inn--confirmed my opinion.
Thereupon I committed my first mistake. Cassim, the Nubian mute, who
had been in my service for many years, was formerly attached to a
great household in Stambûl. I shall probably be understood. I
instructed him; and Mr. Addison very cleverly playing upon his
superstitious nature, Cassim failed.
My time grows short. I will touch upon my second folly of that night.
Long before, the possibility of firing a projectile from the tower of
Friar's Park into the upper front of the Abbey Inn had presented
itself to me in the light of a feasible experiment.
Unaware that Inspector Gatton was watching me--unaware that in my
absence he had actually detected the presence of the gun upon the
tower--I played my last card ... and lost.
Cassim it was who detected the fact that police were watching the Bell
House! Cassim had failed me once. I instructed him a second time.
I near the end of my statement. Destruction of all my effects, of all
evidence of my work, and, crowning tragedy, of every trace of a life's
research, was unavoidable. Knowing that every railway station and port
would be watched and that my marked personality could not hope to
escape the vigilance of the authorities, I determined to make a bid
for freedom by seeking the shelter of my villa in London.
Cassim systematically fired the Bell House ... and perished in the
flames! Under cover of the confusion which the conflagration
occasioned, Nahémah and I succeeded in making our retirement by the
gate opening on the Hainingham road.
But, in my attempts upon the life of Mr. Addison, I had not counted
with Nahémah. I had raised up a monster ... that monster ... has
destroyed me....