"The poor old fellow could not talk much, and I soon left him; but what
he had told me was sufficient to make it unmistakable that no living
person had been within yards of him when he was attacked; and, as I knew,
this fact was verified by three capable and responsible witnesses,
independent of Bellett himself.
"The thing now was to search the Chapel, which is small and extremely
old. It is very massively built, and entered through only one door, which
leads out of the castle itself, and the key of which is kept by Sir
Alfred Jarnock, the butler having no duplicate.
"The shape of the Chapel is oblong, and the altar is railed off after the
usual fashion. There are two tombs in the body of the place; but none in
the chancel, which is bare, except for the tall candlesticks, and the
chancel rail, beyond which is the undraped altar of solid marble, upon
which stand four small candlesticks, two at each end.
"Above the altar hangs the 'waeful dagger,' as I had learned it was
named. I fancy the term has been taken from an old vellum, which
describes the dagger and its supposed abnormal properties. I took the
dagger down, and examined it minutely and with method. The blade is ten
inches long, two inches broad at the base, and tapering to a rounded but
sharp point, rather peculiar. It is double-edged.
"The metal sheath is curious for having a crosspiece, which, taken with
the fact that the sheath itself is continued three parts up the hilt of
the dagger (in a most inconvenient fashion), gives it the appearance of a
cross. That this is not unintentional is shown by an engraving of the
Christ crucified upon one side, whilst upon the other, in Latin, is the
inscription: 'Vengeance is Mine, I will Repay.' A quaint and rather
terrible conjunction of ideas. Upon the blade of the dagger is graven in
old English capitals: I WATCH. I STRIKE. On the butt of the hilt there is
carved deeply a Pentacle.
"This is a pretty accurate description of the peculiar old weapon that
has had the curious and uncomfortable reputation of being able (either of
its own accord or in the hand of something invisible) to strike
murderously any enemy of the Jarnock family who may chance to enter the
Chapel after nightfall. I may tell you here and now, that before I left,
I had very good reason to put certain doubts behind me; for I tested the
deadliness of the thing myself.
"As you know, however, at this point of my investigation, I was still at
that stage where I considered the existence of a supernatural Force
unproven. In the meanwhile, I treated the Chapel drastically, sounding
and scrutinizing the walls and floor, dealing with them almost foot by
foot, and particularly examining the two tombs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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