The Mystery of M. FelixFarjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
The Mystery of M. Felix
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
Detective and mystery stories; English fiction -- 19th century
"We hark back now to the point at which we left Constable Nightingale.
He had returned to Gerard Street without having found the man. During
his absence nothing further had occurred to alarm the housekeeper and
the constable who kept her company, and they were in doubt as to what
was best to be done. There was no evidence that the man had entered
the house with the intention of robbing it, but he might have done so,
and being disturbed before he effected his purpose, thought it
expedient to make his escape as quickly as possible. They were
debating this view when they were startled by what they declare was an
'apparition.' It was the apparition of a half-starved cat, which in
some way must have found an entrance into the house before Mrs.
Middlemore came back with her supper-beer. The cat did not belong to
the house, for M. Felix had a horror of such creatures, and would not
allow one to be kept on the premises. It was not the cat that startled
them, but the color of the cat, which seemed to have been rolling
itself in blood. They saw it only for an instant, and then it
disappeared, and has not since been seen again; but it left its marks
behind it. On the oil-cloth were marks of blood, made by the cat's
paws. These signs decided their course of action, and they proceeded
upstairs to the apartments occupied by M. Felix. They knocked and
called out loudly to him, but received no answer. By an ingenious
arrangement, devised presumably by M. Felix himself, the keyhole of
the door by which they stood was masked by a brass plate, the secret
of which was known only to M. Felix. The silence strengthened their
apprehensions of foul play, and they determined to force the door
open. To effect this it was necessary to obtain the assistance of a
locksmith, and Constable Nightingale issued forth once more, and
brought back with him not only a locksmith, but a doctor in the
neighborhood, Dr. Lamb, who was coming home late from a professional
visit. With some difficulty the door was forced open, and the first
thing that met their eyes was a pool of blood on the floor of the
sitting-room. They describe it as such, although subsequent
examination proved that there was a decided exaggeration in calling it
a pool, the quantity of blood which had fallen not being very serious.
M. Felix was not in this room, but when they entered the bedroom
adjoining they discovered him in an arm-chair, bearing the appearance
of a man who had fallen asleep. He was not asleep, however; he was
dead. The natural presumption was that he had been murdered, and that
the blood on the floor was his, but Dr. Lamb very soon declared that
this was not the case. M. Felix was dead, certainly, but his death was
produced by natural causes, heart disease. In this conclusion Dr. Lamb
was supported by other medical evidence which was sought on the
following day, and this being supposed to be sufficiently established,
the necessity of a post-mortem was not immediately recognized. The
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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