THE FACE OF THE BODY-SNATCHER.
The methods of Royson's emissary were simple and direct. One day he
wandered in among the negroes at Ilexhurst in search of a lost hound
puppy, for Dick was a mighty hunter, especially of the midnight 'possum.
No one had seen the puppy, but all were ready to talk, and the death of
Rita had been the latest sensation. From them he obtained every detail
from the time Edward had carried the body in his arms to the little
house, until it had been buried under the crooked cedar in the
plantation burying-ground.
The body had been dressed by two of the women. There had been a little
blood on her head, from a small wound in the left temple, where she had
cut herself against the glass when she was "taken with a fit."
The coffin was a heavy metal one and the top screwed on. That was all.
When Royson received the report of the cut in the head and the blood,
his breath almost forsook him. Morgan might have been innocent, but what
a chain of circumstantial evidence! If Dick should return to tell him
some morning that the false wound he was to make was already on the spot
selected, he would not be surprised. So far he could show a motive for
the crime, and every circumstance necessary to convict his enemy with
it. All he needed was a cause of death.
Dick's precautions in this venture were novel, from the Caucasian
standpoint. His superstition was the strongest feature of his depraved
mind. The negro has an instinctive dread of dead bodies, but a dead and
buried cadaver is to him a horror.
In this instance, however, Dick's superstition made his sacrilege
possible; for while he believed firmly in the reappearance and power of
departed spirits, he believed equally in the powers of the voodoo to
control or baffle them. Before undertaking his commission, he went to
one of these voodoo "doctors," who had befriended him in more than one
peril, and by the gift of a fat 'possum secured a charm to protect him.
The dark hour came, and at midnight to the little clump of trees came
also Slippery Dick. His first act was to bore a hole with an auger in
the cedar, insert the voodoo charm and plug the hole firmly. This
chained the spirit of the dead. Then with a spade and working rapidly,
he threw the mound aside and began to toss out the earth from above the
coffin. In half an hour his spade laid the wooden case bare. Some
difficulty was experienced in removing the screws, but down in that
cavity, the danger from using matches was reduced to a minimum, and by
the aid of these he soon loosened the lid and removed it. To lift this
out, and take off the metal top of the burial case, was the work of but
a few minutes longer, and the remains of poor Rita were exposed to view.
In less than an hour after his arrival Slippery Dick had executed his
commission and was filling up the grave. With the utmost care he pressed
down the earth and drew up the loosened soil.
There had been a bunch of faded flowers upon the mound; he restored
these and with a sigh of relief shouldered his spade and auger and took
his departure, glad to leave the grewsome spot.
But a dramatic pantomime had been enacted near him which he never saw.
While he was engaged in marking the head of the lifeless body, the
slender form of a man appeared above him and shrank back in horror at
the discovery. This man turned and picked up the heavy spade and swung
it in air. If it had descended the negro would have been brained. But
thought is a monarch! Slowly the arm descended, the spade was laid upon
the ground, and the form a moment before animated with an overwhelming
passion stood silent and motionless behind the cedar.
When the negro withdrew, this man followed, gliding from cover to cover,
or following boldly in the open, but at all times with a tread as soft
as a panther's. Down they went, the criminal and his shadow, down into
the suburbs, then into the streets and then into the heart of the city.
Near the office of Amos Royson the man in front uttered a peculiar
whistle and passed on. At the next corner under the electric lamp he
turned and found himself confronted by a slender man, whose face shone
white under the ghastly light of the lamp, whose hair hung upon his
shoulders, and whose eyes were distended with excitement. Uttering a cry
of fright, the negro sprang from the sidewalk into the gutter, but the
other passed on without turning except to cross the street, where in a
friendly shadow he stopped. And as he stood there the negro retraced his
steps and paused at the door of the lawyer's office. A dimly outlined
form was at the window above. They had no more than time to exchange a
word when the negro went on and the street was bare, except that a
square away a heavy-footed policeman was approaching.
The man in the shadow leaned his head against a tree and thought. In his
brain, standing out as distinct as if cut from black marble, was the
face of the man he had followed.
Gerald possessed the reasoning faculty to an eminent degree, but it had
been trained altogether upon abstract propositions. The small affairs of
life were strange and remote to him, and the passions that animate the
human breast were forces and agencies beyond his knowledge and
calculations.
Annie Montjoy, with the facts in his possession, would have reached
instantly a correct conclusion as to their meaning. He could not handle
them. His mind was absolutely free of suspicion. He had wandered to the
little graveyard, as he had before when sleepless and harassed, and
discovered that some one was disfiguring the body of his lifelong
friend. To seize the spade and wreak vengeance upon the intruder was his
first impulse, but at the moment that it should have fallen he saw that
the head of the woman was being carefully replaced in position and the
clothing arranged. He paused in wonder. The habitual opium-eater
develops generally a cunning that is incomprehensible to the normal
mind, and curiosity now controlled Gerald. The moment for action had
passed. He withdrew behind the tree to witness the conclusion of the
drama.
His following the retreating figure was but the continuance of his new
mood. He would see the affair out and behold the face of the man.
Succeeding in this he went home, revolving in mind the strange
experience he had gained.
But the excitement would not pass away from him, and in the solitude of
his studio, with marvelous skill he drew in charcoal the scene as it
shone in memory--the man in the grave, the sad, dead face of the woman,
shrinking into dissolution, and then its every detail perfect, upon a
separate sheet the face of the man under the lamp. The memories no
longer haunted him. They were transferred to paper.
Then Gerald underwent the common struggle of his existence; he lay down
and tossed upon his pillow; he arose and read and returned again. At
last came the surrender, opium and--oblivion.
Standing by the easel next morning, Virdow said to Edward: "The brain
cannot survive this many years. When dreams of memories such as these,
vivid enough to be remembered and drawn, come upon it, when the waking
mind holds them vivid, it is in a critical condition." He looked sadly
upon the sleeper and felt the white wrist that overlay the counterpane.
The flesh was cold, the pulse slow and feeble. "Vitality small," he
said. "It will be sudden when it comes; sleep will simply extend into
eternity."
Edward's mind reverted to the old general. What was his own duty? He
would decide. It might be that he would return no more, and if he did
not, and Gerald was left, he should have a protector.
Virdow had been silent and thoughtful. Now he turned with sudden
decision.
"My experiments will probably end with the next," he said. "The truth
is, I am so thoroughly convinced that the cultivation of this singular
power which Gerald possesses is destructive of the nervous system I
cannot go on with them. In some way the young man has wound himself
about me. I will care for him as I would a son. He is all gold." The old
man passed out abruptly, ashamed of the feeling which shook his voice.
But Edward sat upon the bed and taking the white hand in his own,
smoothed it gently, and gave himself up to thought. What did it mean?
And how would it end? The sleeper stirred slightly. "Mother," he said,
and a childish smile dwelt for a moment upon his lips. Edward replaced
the hand upon the counterpane and withdrew.