“At the Trafalgar Hotel.”
“Give me your arm,” said I to G——. “Let us call on him; I have something
to say.”
When we arrived at the hotel we were told that Mr. Richards had returned
twenty minutes before, paid his bill, left directions with his servant
(a Greek) to pack his effects, and proceed to Malta by the steamer that
should leave Southampton the next day. Mr. Richards had merely said of
his own movements that he had visits to pay in the neighborhood of
London, and it was uncertain whether he should be able to reach
Southampton in time for that steamer; if not, he should follow in the
next one.
The waiter asked me my name. On my informing him, he gave me a note that
Mr. Richards had left for me in case I called.
The note was as follows:
I wished you to utter what was in your mind. You obeyed. I have
therefore established power over you. For three months from this day
you can communicate to no living man what has passed between us. You
cannot even show this note to the friend by your side. During three
months, silence complete as to me and mine. Do you doubt my power to
lay on you this command? Try to disobey me. At the end of the third
month the spell is raised. For the rest, I spare you. I shall visit
your grave a year and a day after it has received you.
So ends this strange story, which I ask no one to believe. I write it
down exactly three months after I received the above note. I could not
write it before, nor could I show to G——, in spite of his urgent
request, the note which I read under the gas-lamp by his side.