The idea that the extraordinary narrative which has been called the Joyce-
Armstrong Fragment is an elaborate practical joke evolved by some unknown
person, cursed by a perverted and sinister sense of humour, has now been
abandoned by all who have examined the matter. The most _macabre_ and
imaginative of plotters would hesitate before linking his morbid fancies
with the unquestioned and tragic facts which reinforce the statement.
Though the assertions contained in it are amazing and even monstrous, it
is none the less forcing itself upon the general intelligence that they
are true, and that we must readjust our ideas to the new situation. This
world of ours appears to be separated by a slight and precarious margin
of safety from a most singular and unexpected danger. I will endeavour
in this narrative, which reproduces the original document in its
necessarily somewhat fragmentary form, to lay before the reader the whole
of the facts up to date, prefacing my statement by saying that, if there
be any who doubt the narrative of Joyce-Armstrong, there can be no
question at all as to the facts concerning Lieutenant Myrtle, R.N., and
Mr. Hay Connor, who undoubtedly met their end in the manner described.
The Joyce-Armstrong Fragment was found in the field which is called Lower
Haycock, lying one mile to the westward of the village of Withyham, upon
the Kent and Sussex border. It was on the fifteenth of September last
that an agricultural labourer, James Flynn, in the employment of Mathew
Dodd, farmer, of the Chauntry Farm, Withyham, perceived a briar pipe
lying near the footpath which skirts the hedge in Lower Haycock. A few
paces farther on he picked up a pair of broken binocular glasses.
Finally, among some nettles in the ditch, he caught sight of a flat,
canvas-backed book, which proved to be a note-book with detachable
leaves, some of which had come loose and were fluttering along the base
of the hedge. These he collected, but some, including the first, were
never recovered, and leave a deplorable hiatus in this all-important
statement. The notebook was taken by the labourer to his master, who in
turn showed it to Dr. J. H. Atherton, of Hartfield. This gentleman at
once recognised the need for an expert examination, and the manuscript
was forwarded to the Aero Club in London, where it now lies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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