Detective and mystery stories; Villages -- England -- Fiction
“Oh, the ghost!” said Doris eagerly. “The Bateses would think of him,
of course. An old farmer named Ben Robson used to live in this house
about the time of Napoleon. He was suspected by the authorities to be
an agent of the smugglers, and the story goes that his own daughter
quarreled with him and betrayed him. He narrowly escaped hanging, owing
to his age, I believe, and was sentenced to a long term of
imprisonment. At last he was released, being then a very old man, and
he came straight here and strangled his daughter. It is quite a
terrible story. He was found dead by her side. Then people remembered
that she had spoken of someone scaring her by looking in through that
small window some nights previously. Naturally, a ghost was soon
manufactured. I really wonder why the man who rebuilt and renamed the
place in the middle of last century didn’t have the window removed
altogether.”
“Glad I began the work of demolition tonight,” said Hart, and, for
once, his tone was serious.
“Why did you never tell me that scrap of history, Doris?” inquired
Grant.
“You liked the place so much that father and I agreed not to mar your
enthusiasm by recalling an unpleasant legend,” she said frankly. “Not
that what I’ve related isn’t true. The record appears in a Sussex
Miscellany of those years.... Oh, my goodness, can it be eleven
o’clock!”
The hall clock had no doubt on the point. Furneaux pocketed the written
notes regarding Ingerman, and grabbed the hat off the table. Grant, for
some reason, was aware that the detective repressed an obvious
reference to the last occasion on which the girl had heard that same
clock announce the hour.
Furneaux would allow no other escort. He and Doris made off
immediately.
When they were gone, Hart stared fixedly at an empty decanter.
“My dim recollection of your port, Jack, is that it was a wine of many
virtues and few vices,” he mused aloud.
Grant took the hint, and went to a cellar. Returning, he found his
crony poring over the book which, singularly enough, figured
prominently on each occasion when the specter-producing window was
markedly in evidence. Hart glanced up at his host, and nodded
cheerfully at a dust-laden bottle.
“What is there in ‘The Talisman’ which needed so much research?” he
asked.
“Some lines by Sir David Lindsay, quoted by Scott,” was the answer.
“Are these they?” And Hart read:
_One thing is certain in our Northern land;
Allow that birth, or valor, wealth, or wit,
Give each precedence to their possessor,
Envy, that follows on such eminence,
As comes the lyme-hound on the roebuck’s trace,
Shall pull them down each one._
“Yes,” said Grant.
“Love isn’t mentioned. The fair Doris will be true. You’re in luck, my
boy. But somebody is out for your blood, and here is clear warning. Gee
whizz! If I remain in Steynholme a week I shall become an occultist.
What is a lyme-hound?”
“‘Lyme,’ or ‘leam,’ is the old-time word for ‘leash.’”
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