American fiction; Horror tales, American; Short stories, American
The shapes and sizes and styles of the furniture were duplicated
all through, but the colors varied, so that the twelve suites were
in twelve colors; black, white, gray and brown, and light and dark
yellow, red, green and blue; wall coverings, hangings, carpets and
rugs all to match in each suite. The panels of the walls had the same
picture, however, repeated over and over, two, four or six times to a
room and in every suite alike.
This picture was the design I had failed to make out on the labels of
the bottles. It was set as a medallion in each panel of the blue or
red walls, or whatever other color they were. The background of the
picture was a vague sort of palish sky and blurred, hazy clouds above
tropical-looking foliage. The chief figure was an angel, in flowing
white robes, floating on silvery-plumed wings widespread. The angel’s
face was a human face, the only human face in any picture in that
palace, the face of a grave, gentle, rather girlish young man.
The creature the angel was leading was a huge, bulky crocodile, with
a gold collar about its neck, and a gold chain from that, not to the
angel’s hand, but to a gold fetter about his wrist.
Under each picture was a verse of four lines, always the same.
“Let not your baser nature drag you down.
Utter no whimper, not one sigh or moan,
Hopeless of respite, solace, palm or crown
Live out your life unflinching and alone.”
I saw it so often I shall never forget it.
The bathrooms were luxurious in the extreme, a needle-bath, a
shower-bath, two basins of different sizes in each, besides the sunk
pool-tub. The dressing-rooms has each a variety of wardrobes. One or
two we opened, finding in each several suits of little clothes, as if
for a boy under six years old. One closet had shelf above shelf of
small shoes, not much over four inches long.
“Evidently,” Thwaite remarked, “Hengist Eversleigh is a dwarf, whatever
else he is.”
Rivvin left the wardrobes and closets alone after the first few.
Each bedroom had in it nothing but the bed and on each side of it a
sort of wine-cooler, like a pail with a lid, but bigger, set on three
short legs so that its top was level with the bed. We opened most of
them; every one we opened was filled with ice, bedded in which were
several half-pint bottles. Every one of the twelve beds had the covers
carefully turned down. Not one showed any sign of having been occupied.
The wine-coolers were solid silver but we left them where they were. As
Thwaite remarked, it would have taken two full-sized freight cars to
contain the silver we had seen.
In the dressing-rooms the articles like brushes and combs on the
bureaus were all of gold, and most set with jewels. Rivvin began to
fill a bag with those entirely of metal, but even he made no attempt
to tear the backs off the brushes or to waste energy on any other
breakage. By the time we had scanned the twelve suites Rivvin could
barely carry his bag.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account