THE SPECTRE AT THE FEAST
Merriton, clad in his evening clothes and looking exceedingly handsome,
stood by the smoking room door, with Tony West, short and thickset,
wearing a suit that fitted badly and a collar which looked sizes too
large for him (Merriton had long given up hope of making him visit a
decent tailor) and waited for the sound of motor wheels which would
announce the arrival of further guests.
It was the memorable Tuesday dinner, given in the first place for Dacre
Wynne, as a sort of send off before he left for Cairo. In the second
Merriton intended to break it gently to the other chaps that he was
shortly to become a Benedict.
Lester Stark and Tony West, very loyal and proven friends of Nigel
Merriton, had arrived the evening before. Dacre Wynne was coming down by
the seven o'clock train, Dicky Fordyce, Reginald Lefroy--both fellow
officers of Merriton's regiment, and home on leave from India--and mild
old Dr. Bartholomew, whom everyone respected and few did not love, and
who was in attendance at most of the bachelor spreads in London and out
of it, as being a dry old body with a wit as fine as a rapier-thrust,
and a fund of delicate, subtle humour, made up the little party.
The solemn front door bell of Merriton Towers clanged, and Borkins, very
pompous and elegant, flung wide the door. Merriton saw Wynne's big,
broad-shouldered figure swathed in the black evening cloak which he
affected upon such occasions, and which became him mightily, and with an
opera hat set at the correct angle upon his closely-clipped dark hair,
step into the lighted hallway, and begin taking off his gloves.
Tony West's raspy voice chimed out a welcome, as Merriton went forward,
his hand outstretched.
"Hello, old man!" said Tony. "How goes it? Lookin' a bit white about the
gills, aren't you, eh?... Whew! Merriton, old chap, that's my ribs, if
you don't mind. I've no penchant for your bayonet-like elbow to go
prodding into 'em!"
Merriton raised an eyebrow, frowned heavily, and by every other method
under the sun tried to make it plain to West that the topic was taboo.
Wherefore West raised _his_ eyebrows, began to make a hasty exclamation,
thought better of it, and then clapping his hand over his mouth broke
into whistling the latest jazz tune, as though he had completely
extricated both feet from the unfortunate mire he had planted them
in--but with very little success.
Wynne was a frowning Hercules as he entered the pleasant smoke-filled
room. Merriton's arm lay upon his sleeve, and he endured because he had
to--that was all.
"Hello!" he said, to Lester Stark's rather half-hearted greeting--Lester
Stark never had liked Dacre Wynne and they both knew it. "You here as
well? Merriton's giving me a send-off and no mistake. Gad! you chaps will
be envying me this time next week, I'll swear! Out on the briny for a
decently long trip; plenty of pretty women--on which I'm bankin' of
course"--he gave Merriton a sudden, searching look, "and not a care in
the world. And the white lights of Cairo starin' at me across the water.
Some picture, isn't it?"
"You may keep it!" said Tony West with a shudder. "When you've smelled
Cairo, Wynne, old boy, you'll come skulkin' home with your tail between
your legs. A 'rose by any other name would smell as sweet,' but
Cairo--parts of it mind you--well, Cairo's the stinkin'st rose I ever
put my nose into, that's all!"
"There are some things which offend the nostrils more than--odours!"
threw back Wynne with a black look in Nigel's direction, and with a
sort of slur in his voice that showed he had been drinking more than
was good for him that night. "I think I can endure the smells of Cairo
after--other things. Eh, Nigel?" He forced a laugh which was mirthless
and unpleasant, and Merriton, with a quick glance into his friends'
faces, saw that they too had seen. Wynne was in one of his "devil"
humours, and all the fun and joking and merriment in the world would
never get him out of it. His pity for the man suddenly died a natural
death. The very evident fact that Wynne had been drinking rather heavily
merely added a further distaste to it all. He wished heartily that he
had never ventured upon this act of unwanted friendliness and given a
dinner in his honour. Wynne was going to be the spectre at the feast, and
it looked like being a poor sort of show after all.
"Come, buck up, old chap!" broke out Tony West, the irrepressible. "Try
to look a little less like a soured lemon, if you can! Or we'll begin to
think that you've been and gone and done something you're sorry for, and
are trying to work it off on us instead."
"Hello, here's Doctor Johnson," as the venerable Bartholomew entered the
room. "How goes it to-night, sir? A fine night, what? Behold the king of
the feast, his serene and mighty--oh extremely mighty!--highness Prince
Dacre Wynne, world explorer and soon to be lord-high-sniffer of Cairo's
smells! Don't envy him the task, do you?"
He bowed with a flourish to the doctor who chuckled and his keen eyes,
fringed with snow-white lashes, danced. He wore a rather long, extremely
untidy beard, and his shirt-front as always was crumpled and worn.
Anything more unlike a doctor it would be hard to imagine. But he was a
clever one, nevertheless.
"Well, my talkative young parrot," he greeted West affectionately, "and
how are you?... And who's party is this, anyhow? Yours or Merriton's?
You seem to be putting yourself rather more to the fore than usual."
"Well, I'll soon be goin' aft," retorted West with a wide grin. "When old
Nigel gets his innings. He's as chockful of news as an egg is of meat."
West was one of the chosen few who had already heard of Nigel's
engagement, and he was rather like a gossipy old woman--but his friends
forgave it in him.
Merriton gave him a shove, and he fell back upon Wynne, emitting a
portentous groan.
"What the devil--?" began that gentleman, in a testy voice.
Tony grinned.
"Nigel was ever thus!" he murmured, with uplifted eyes.
"Shut up!" thundered Stark, clapping a hand over West's mouth, and he
subsided as the doorbell rang again, and Borkins ushered in Fordyce and
Lefroy, two slim-hipped, dapper young gentlemen with the stamp of the
army all over them. The party thus complete, Borkins gravely withdrew,
and some fifteen minutes later the great gong in the hallway clanged
out its summons. They streamed into the dining room, Doctor Bartholomew
upon Tony West's fat little arm; Fordyce and Lefroy, side by side, hands
in pockets and closely cropped heads nodding vigorously; Merriton and
Lester Stark sauntering one slightly behind the other, and exchanging
pleasantries as they went; and just in front of them, Dacre Wynne,
solitary, huge, sinister, and overbearing.
Wynne sat in the seat of honour on Merriton's right. The rest sorted
themselves out as they wished, and made a good deal of noise and fun
about it, too. Down the length of the long, exquisitely decorated table
Merriton looked at his guests and thought it wasn't going to be so dismal
after all.
Champagne ran like water and spirits ran high. They joyfully toasted
Wynne, and later on the news that Merriton imparted to them. In vain
Dacre Wynne's low spirits were apparent. He must get over his grouch,
that was all. Then once again the spirit of evil descended upon the
gathering and it was Stark who precipitated its flight. "By the way,
Nigel," he asked suddenly, "isn't there some ghost story or other
pertaining to your district? Give us a recital of it, old boy. Walnuts
and wine and ghost stories, you know, are just the right sort of thing
after a dinner like this. Tony, switch off the lights. This old house of
yours is the very place for ghosts. Now let us have it."
"Hold on," Nigel remonstrated. "Give me a chance to digest my dinner,
and--dash it all, the thing's so deuced uncanny that it doesn't bear too
much laughing at either!"
"Come along!" Six voices echoed the cry. "We're waiting, Nigel."
So Merriton had forthwith to oblige them. He, too, had had enough to
drink--though drinking too heavily was not one of his vices--and his
flushed face showed the excitement that burned within him.
"Come over here by the window and see the thing for yourselves, and then
you shall hear the story," he began enigmatically.
Nigel pushed back the heavy curtain and there, in the darkness
without--it was getting on toward ten o'clock--gleamed and danced and
flickered the little flames that had so often puzzled him, and filled
his soul with a strange sort of supernatural fear. Against the blackness
beyond they hung like a chain of diamonds irregularly strung, flickering
incessantly.
Every man there, save one, and that one stood apart from the others like
some giant bull who deigns not to run with the herd--gave an involuntary
exclamation.
"What a deuced pretty sight!" remarked Fordyce, in his pleasant drawl.
"What is it? Some sort of fair or other? Didn't know you had such things
in these parts."
"We don't." It was Merriton who spoke, rather curtly, for the remark
sounded inane to his ears.
"It is no fair you ass, it's--God knows what! That's the point of the
whole affair. What _are_ those flames, and where do they come from? That
part of the Fens is uninhabited, a boggy, marshy, ghostly spot which no
one in the whole countryside will cross at night. The story goes that
those who do--well they never come back."
"Oh, go easy, Nigel!" struck in Tony West with a whistle of pretended
astonishment. "Champagne no doubt, but--"
"It's the truth according to the villagers, anyhow!" returned Merriton,
soberly. "That is how the story goes, my lad, and you chaps asked me for
it. Those Frozen Flames--it's the villagers' name, not mine--they say are
supernatural phenomena, and any one, as I said before, crossing the place
near them at night disappears clean off the face of the earth. Then a
new flame appears, the soul of the johnny who has 'gone out'."
"Any proof?" inquired Doctor Bartholomew suddenly, stroking his beard,
and arching his bushy eyebrows, as if trying to sympathize with his
host's obvious half belief in the story.
Nigel wheeled and faced him in the dim light. The pupils of his eyes were
a trifle dilated.
"Yes, so I understand. Short time back a chap went out--fellow called
Myers--Will Myers. He was a bit drunk, I think, and thought he'd have
a shot at makin' the village busybodies sit up and give 'em something to
talk about. Anyhow, he went."
"And he came back?" Unconsciously a little note of anxiety had crept into
Tony West's voice.
"No, on the contrary, he did _not_ come back. They searched for his body
all over the marshes next day, but it had disappeared absolutely, and the
chap who told me said he saw another light come out the next night, and
join the rest of 'em.... There, there's your story, Lester, make what you
like of it. I've done my bit and told it anyway."
For a moment there was silence. Then Stark shook himself.
"Gad, what an uncanny story! Turn up the lights someone, and dispel this
gloom that seems to have settled on everyone! What do you make of it?"
Suddenly Wynne's great, bulky figure swung free from the shadows. There
were red glints in his eyes and a sneer curled his heavy lips. He sucked
his cigar and threw his head back.
"What I make of it is a whole lot of old women's damn silly nonsense!" he
announced in a loud voice. "And how a sensible, decent thinkin' man can
give credence to the thing for one second beats me completely! Nigel's
head was always full of imaginations (of a sort) but how you other chaps
can listen to the thing--Well, all I can say is you're the rottenest lot
of idiots I've ever come across!"
Merriton shut his lips tightly for a moment, and tried hard to remember
that this man was a guest in his house. It was so obvious that Wynne was
trying for a row, Doctor Bartholomew turned round and lifted a protesting
hand.
"Don't you think your language is a trifle--er--overstrong, Wynne?" he
said, in that quiet voice of his which made all men listen and wonder why
they did it.
Wynne tossed his shoulders. His thick neck was rather red.
"No, I'm damned if I do! You're men here--or supposed to be--not a pack
of weak-kneed women!... Afraid to go out and see what those lights are,
are you? Well, I'm not. Look here. I'll have a bet with you boys. Fifty
pounds that I get back safely, and dispel the morbid fancies from your
kindergarten brains by tellin' you that the things are glow-worms, or
some fool out for a practical joke on the neighbourhood--which has fallen
for it like this sort of one-horse hole-in-the-corner place would! Fifty
pounds? What say you?"
He glowered round upon each of them in turn, his sneering lips showing
the pointed dogs' teeth behind them, his whole arrogant personality
brutally awake. "Who'll take it on? You Merriton? Fifty pounds, man,
that I don't get back safely and report to you chaps at twelve o'clock
to-night."
Merriton's flushed face went a shade or two redder, and he took an
involuntary step forward. It was only the doctor's fingers upon his
coat-sleeve that restrained him. Then, too, he felt some anxiety that
this drunken fool should attempt to do the very thing which another
drunken fool had attempted three months back. He couldn't bet on another
man's chance of life, like he would on a race-horse!
"You'll be a fool if you go, Wynne," he said, as quietly as his
excitement would permit. "As my guest I ask you not to. The thing may be
all rubbish--possibly is--but I'd rather you took no chances. Who it is
that hides out there and kills his victims or smuggles them away I don't
know, but I'd rather you didn't, old chap. And I'm not betting on a
fellow's life. Have another drink man, and forget all about it."
Wynne took this creditable effort at reconciliation with a harsh guffaw.
He crossed to Nigel and put his big, heavy hands upon the slim shoulders,
bending his flushed face down so that the eyes of both were almost upon a
level.
"You little, white-livered sneak," he said in a deep rumbling voice that
was like thunder in the still room. "Pull yourself together and try to be
a man. Take on the bet or not, whichever you like. You're savin' up for
the housekeepin' I suppose. Well, take it or leave it--fifty pounds that
I get back safe in this house to-night. Are you on?"
Merriton's teeth bit into his lips until the blood came in the effort at
repression. He shook Wynne's hands off his shoulders and laughed straight
into the other man's sneering face.
"Well then go--and be damned to you!" he said fiercely. "And blame your
drunken wits if you come to grief. I've done my best to dissuade you. If
you were less drunk I'd square the thing up and fight you. But I'm on,
all right. Fifty pounds that you don't get back here--though I'm decent
enough to hope I'll have to pay it. That satisfy you?"
"All right." Wynne straightened himself, took an unsteady step forward
toward the door, and it was then that they all realized how exceedingly
drunk the man was. He had come to the dinner in a state of partial
intoxication, which merely made him bad-tempered, but now the spirits
that he had partaken of so plentifully was burning itself into his very
brain.
Doctor Bartholomew took a step toward him.
"Dash it all!" he said under his breath and addressing no one in
particular, "he can't go like that. Can't some of us stop him?"
"Try," put in Lester Stark sententiously, having had previous experiences
of Wynne's mood, so Doctor Bartholomew did try, and got cursed for his
pains. Wynne was struggling into his great, picturesque cloak, a sinister
figure of unsteady gait and blood-shot eye. As he went to the hall and
swung open the front door, Merriton made one last effort to stop him.
"Don't be a fool, Wynne," he said anxiously. "The game's not worth the
candle. Stay where you are and I'll put you up for the night, but in
Heaven's name don't venture out across the Fens now."
Wynne turned and showed him a reddened, congested face from which the
eyes gleamed evilly. Merriton never forgot that picture of him, or the
sudden tightening of the heart-strings that he experienced, the sudden
sensation of foreboding that swept over him.
"Oh--go to hell!" Wynne said thickly. And plunged out into the darkness.