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
"Shortly before his death M. Felix, being alone in the house in Gerard
Street, received a visitor. Whether expected or unexpected, whether
welcome or unwelcome, we are not prepared to state; nor are we
prepared to state how this visitor obtained entrance to the house.
Obtain entrance by some means he undoubtedly did, and mounting the
stairs, he knocked at the door of M. Felix's sitting-room. At the
moment M. Felix heard the knock he had his Indian desk open before
him, and it was in connection with a secret which this desk contained,
or to which a document in the desk could afford a clue, that the visit
was made. M. Felix, supposing that it was his housekeeper who knocked,
opened the door and admitted the intruder. A stormy scene ensued, and
M. Felix, throwing open his window, screamed for help. The appeal was
sent forth into the wild night more from the fear that he was about to
be robbed of this secret than from the fear that his life was in
danger. The hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that there were no
marks of personal violence on the body of M. Felix. The visitor laid
hands upon the desk, and as he did so M. Felix turned from the window,
snatched up the dagger, and hurled it with all his force at the
robber. The sharp point struck into the flesh of the intruder, and it
was his blood which was discovered on the floor of the room. The
agitation produced by the scene brought on the attack of heart disease
which caused M. Felix's death. The blind and momentary delirium which
ensued did not prevent M. Felix from thinking of the revolver beneath
his pillows; he staggered into his bedroom, but before he reached his
bed he fell lifeless in a chair. While this was going on the robber
had seized the desk, and, conscious that to carry away with him the
evidence of a dagger dripping with blood might lead to his detection,
he threw it swiftly from him behind the sideboard. He threw it with
his right hand, his back being toward the door, which accounts for the
place and position in which our reporter found the weapon. Then, with
the desk in his possession, he escaped from the house--ignorant of the
tragedy that had occurred, ignorant that M. Felix was lying dead
within a few feet of him. He left the door open, but the fierce wind
through the window blew it shut. It was while it was open that the cat
which alarmed Mrs. Middlemore and the two constables crept into the
room, became besmeared with blood, and crept out.
"The departure of the thief was like the falling of the curtain upon a
pregnant act in an exciting drama. Imagination follows the man as he
flies with his stolen treasure through the deserted streets;
imagination wanders to the dead form of M. Felix lying in the chair by
the bedside. When the curtain rises again, what will be disclosed?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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