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第13节

classic mystery and detective stories-第13节

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table from which it had been so mysteriously withdrawn; but it had

stopped at the very moment it was so withdrawn; nor; despite all

the skill of the watchmaker; has it ever gone since;that is; it

will go in a strange; erratic way for a few hours; and then come to

a dead stop; it is worthless。



Nothing more chanced for the rest of the night。  Nor; indeed; had I

long to wait before the dawn broke。  Not till it was broad daylight

did I quit the haunted house。  Before I did so; I revisited the

little blind room in which my servant and myself had been for a

time imprisoned。  I had a strong impressionfor which I could not

accountthat from that room had originated the mechanism of the

phenomena; if I may use the term; which had been experienced in my

chamber。  And though I entered it now in the clear day; with the

sun peering through the filmy window; I still felt; as I stood on

its floors; the creep of the horror which I had first there

experienced the night before; and which had been so aggravated by

what had passed in my own chamber。  I could not; indeed; bear to

stay more than half a minute within those walls。  I descended the

stairs; and again I heard the footfall before me; and when I opened

the street door; I thought I could distinguish a very low laugh。  I

gained my own home; expecting to find my runaway servant there; but

he had not presented himself; nor did I hear more of him for three

days; when I received a letter from him; dated from Liverpool to

this effect:





〃HONORED SIR;I humbly entreat your pardon; though I can scarcely

hope that you will think that I deserve it; unlesswhich Heaven

forbid!you saw what I did。  I feel that it will be years before I

can recover myself; and as to being fit for service; it is out of

the question。  I am therefore going to my brother…in…law at

Melbourne。  The ship sails to…morrow。  Perhaps the long voyage may

set me up。  I do nothing now but start and tremble; and fancy it is

behind me。  I humbly beg you; honored sir; to order my clothes; and

whatever wages are due to me; to be sent to my mother's; at

Walworth;John knows her address。〃





The letter ended with additional apologies; somewhat incoherent;

and explanatory details as to effects that had been under the

writer's charge。



This flight may perhaps warrant a suspicion that the man wished to

go to Australia; and had been somehow or other fraudulently mixed

up with the events of the night。  I say nothing in refutation of

that conjecture; rather; I suggest it as one that would seem to

many persons the most probable solution of improbable occurrences。

My belief in my own theory remained unshaken。  I returned in the

evening to the house; to bring away in a hack cab the things I had

left there; with my poor dog's body。  In this task I was not

disturbed; nor did any incident worth note befall me; except that

still; on ascending and descending the stairs; I heard the same

footfall in advance。  On leaving the house; I went to Mr。 J's。

He was at home。  I returned him the keys; told him that my

curiosity was sufficiently gratified; and was about to relate

quickly what had passed; when he stopped me; and said; though with

much politeness; that he had no longer any interest in a mystery

which none had ever solved。



I determined at least to tell him of the two letters I had read; as

well as of the extraordinary manner in which they had disappeared;

and I then inquired if he thought they had been addressed to the

woman who had died in the house; and if there were anything in her

early history which could possibly confirm the dark suspicions to

which the letters gave rise。  Mr。 J seemed startled; and; after

musing a few moments; answered; 〃I am but little acquainted with

the woman's earlier history; except as I before told you; that her

family were known to mine。  But you revive some vague reminiscences

to her prejudice。  I will make inquiries; and inform you of their

result。  Still; even if we could admit the popular superstition

that a person who had been either the perpetrator or the victim of

dark crimes in life could revisit; as a restless spirit; the scene

in which those crimes had been committed; I should observe that the

house was infested by strange sights and sounds before the old

woman diedyou smilewhat would you say?〃



〃I would say this; that I am convinced; if we could get to the

bottom of these mysteries; we should find a living human agency。〃



〃What! you believe it is all an imposture?  For what object?〃



〃Not an imposture in the ordinary sense of the word。  If suddenly I

were to sink into a deep sleep; from which you could not awake me;

but in that sleep could answer questions with an accuracy which I

could not pretend to when awake;tell you what money you had in

your pocket; nay; describe your very thoughts;it is not

necessarily an imposture; any more than it is necessarily

supernatural。  I should be; unconsciously to myself; under a

mesmeric influence; conveyed to me from a distance by a human being

who had acquired power over me by previous rapport。〃



〃But if a mesmerizer could so affect another living being; can you

suppose that a mesmerizer could also affect inanimate objects: move

chairs;open and shut doors?〃



〃Or impress our senses with the belief in such effects;we never

having been en rapport with the person acting on us?  No。  What is

commonly called mesmerism could not do this; but there may be a

power akin to mesmerism; and superior to it;the power that in the

old days was called Magic。  That such a power may extend to all

inanimate objects of matter; I do not say; but if so; it would not

be against Nature;it would be only a rare power in Nature which

might be given to constitutions with certain peculiarities; and

cultivated by practice to an extraordinary degree。  That such a

power might extend over the dead;that is; over certain thoughts

and memories that the dead may still retain;and compel; not that

which ought properly to be called the SOUL; and which is far beyond

human reach; but rather a phantom of what has been most earth…

stained on earth; to make itself apparent to our senses; is a very

ancient though obsolete theory upon which I will hazard no opinion。

But I do not conceive the power would be supernatural。  Let me

illustrate what I mean from an experiment which Paracelsus

describes as not difficult; and which the author of the

'Curiosities of Literature' cites as credible: A flower perishes;

you burn it。  Whatever were the elements of that flower while it

lived are gone; dispersed; you know not whither; you can never

discover nor re…collect them。  But you can; by chemistry; out of

the burned dust of that flower; raise a spectrum of the flower;

just as it seemed in life。  It may be the same with the human

being。  The soul has as much escaped you as the essence or elements

of the flower。  Still you may make a spectrum of it。  And this

phantom; though in the popular superstition it is held to be the

soul of the departed; must not be confounded with the true soul; it

is but the eidolon of the dead form。  Hence; like the best…attested

stories of ghosts or spirits; the thing that most strikes us is the

absence of what we hold to be soul;that is; of superior

emancipated intelligence。  These apparitions come for little or no

object;they seldom speak when they do come; if they speak; they

utter no ideas above those of an ordinary person on earth。

American spirit seers have published volumes of communications; in

prose and verse; which they assert to be given in the names of the

most illustrious dead: Shakespeare; Bacon;Heaven knows whom。

Those communications; taking the best; are certainly not a whit of

higher order than would be communications from living persons of

fair talent and education; they are wondrously inferior to what

Bacon; Shakespeare; and Plato said and wrote when on earth。  Nor;

what is more noticeable; do they ever contain an idea that was not

on the earth before。  Wonderful; therefore; as such phenomena may

be (granting them to be truthful); I see much that philosophy may

question; nothing that it is incumbent on philosophy to deny;

namely; nothing supernatural。  They are but ideas conveyed somehow

or other (we have not yet discovered the means) from one mortal

brain to another。  Whether; in so doing; tables walk of their own

accord; or fiendlike shapes appear in a magic circle; or bodiless

hands rise and remove material objects; or a Thing of Darkness;

such as presented itself to me; freeze our blood;still am I

persuaded that these are but agencies conveyed; as by electric

wires; to my own brain from the brain of another。  In some

constitutions there is a natural chemistry; and those constitutions

may produce chemic wonders;in others a natural fluid; call it

electricity; and these may produce electric wonders。  But the

wonders differ from Normal Science in this;th

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