of the manuscript I duly aroused the household, affecting an anxiety I
did not feel, for of course I thoroughly understood what had occurred.
An excited crowd, we searched hither and thither for traces of the
missing stranger, and it was not long before Deio, the old ostler,
had made a discovery which did not in the least astonish me. This was
the finding of some clothing held down with heavy stones at the edge
of the promontory only a quarter of a mile from the inn. Here the
demented man, long recognised as an eccentric by the neighbourhood,
must obviously have committed the act of self-destruction by throwing
himself over the cliff into the cold grey surge below. Although it was
wet and stormy, boatmen attempted to find further evidences of the
suicide at the base of the crags, but needless to add their search was
fruitless. There followed the usual tale of police inquiries ending in
nothing; of long columns in the local journals, and of short paragraphs
in the bigger organs of the Press, concerning the mysterious affair at
Glanymôr; but all this excitement died down with a rapidity that might
only have been expected in that period of tense anxiety which marked
the furious campaign on the Belgian frontier towards the close of
October. Interest in the strange occurrence soon flickered out before
such engrossing themes of comment and speculation, even in so remote a
spot as Glanymôr. Certainly a farm-hand at Pen Maelgwyn affirmed he
had heard the buzzing noise of an aeroplane that very night above the
Glanymôr cliffs, despite its being too dark for him to distinguish any
object; and though everybody belittled or disbelieved this statement,
its author stoutly maintained to the last that he was positive he had
not been mistaken in his surmise.
I know John Lewis, the cow-man, was right; and I also know it was the
call of the craft wherein my late companion, the King of Meleager, went
up into a world of light and left me alone and sorrowing here.
THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH
NEW NOVELS
NARCISSUS
By Viola Meynell
THE IRON AGE
By F. Brett Young
MAKING MONEY
By Owen Johnson
THE KING'S MEN
By John Palmer
L.S.D.
By Bohun Lynch
CASUALS OF THE SEA
By William McFee
THE TRUE DIMENSION
By Warrington Dawson
THE CREATED LEGEND
By Feodor Sologub
MARTIN SECKER
MCMXVI