Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1879 — A SECRET OF THE WHITE CHEST. [ARTICLE]

A SECRET OF THE WHITE CHEST.

It was just the house I wanted. In size and situation it suited me exactly, as the phrase goes, literally down to the ground. Facing Hyde Park, and placed back from the high-road, with nothing in front of it but the broad strip of garden belonging to the terrace in which it stood, and the open stretch of turf and trees, it was the very abode for a London season. Its rent, too, was extremely moderate; it was in sound repair; drainage without flaw; fixtures, furniture and decorations in the best taste; the owner only desiring to let it occasionally, because he went away from town each spring. Why then did I hesitate to take it ? Why did everybody hesitate to take it? For the last seven years and more it had never been let. All the house-agents at the West End had had it in hand one after another. The terms had been reduced each season that it came into the market, and still therp was no finding a tenant for it. Everybody who went over the house was charmed with it. The entrance being in the rear, all the best rooms had a delightful southern aspect; and going up from floor to floor on their first visit of inspection, everybody grew more delighted the higher they got. The apartments increased in cheerfulness, if not in size, the outlook from the windows became more extensive and airy, while, when one reached the top story, and ascended by a narrow stair on to a leaded flat roof, with a high balustrade running round it, the view was, as the houseagent expressed it, “quite unique.” Nevertheless, everybody, having reached the roof, and having looked round for a minute or two, descended with a firm determination not to take the house. Now what was the reason? It was not haunted, no ghost had ever been seen, or mysterious noises heard—such things, were never hinted at. There was nothing about it in appearance like the gloomy, forbidding mansion in Severn square, concerning which so many queer stories are told, and which, like the house in question, no one will take. No, it was the very reverse, in all respects, of that long (and still) untenanted abode. I had heard the rumors about the Hyde house often when I had been in London, and my curiosity had always been piqued, so that now, when I wanted just such a house for the season, I determined to go and look at it for myself. Finding all satisfactory, and just as I expected from bottom to top, I was stepping out on the roof with Mr. Crumble, the agent, and was saying to him:

“ Well, I can’t conceive why people won’t live here,” when my eye fell upon a curious object erected upon the leads at the rear and surrounded by a high railing. It looked like a huge sky-light or glass lantern, about ten feet long, three high and three broad. But, instead of forming a light for a staircase or room beneath, it seemed to have been built for the purpose of covering another curious object, which, occupying nearly the whole of the space under the glass, was plainly visible through it. This was a long white box, resembling a seaman’s chest more than anything, only much larger. It rested upon four legs or feet, which raised it about a foot from the flat surface of the roof. It was painted a creamy white and varnished, and, apparently not being intended to open, any more than its glass covering, had no hinges or lock to its top or lid. “ What the’ deuce is that?” said I to Nir. Crumble. „ “ Ah! ” replied that functionary, with an odd expression in his face, “ that’s it, sir 1 ”

“ What’s it, pray? ” “ Why, the secret, sir.” “ The secret? how is it a secret? what do you mean ? ” “ Well, sir, what it is, what it’s meant for, what’s inside of it.” “ Don’t you know ? ” " No, sir.” “ Doesn’t any one know ? ” I suppose somebody does, sir, but we dont; we are forbidden to inquire, or to attempt to find out; if we knew we should be able to let the house, perhaps.” “ How long has it been there? ” “ A long while, I believe, sir—ten or twelve years. Before my time.” “ But who put it up ? ” “ Well, Mr. Gayling, we suppose; nobody seems to know exactly when it first appeared there.” But the servants,” I protested, “they must know.” “Ohl I have heard there were none in the house at the time; they were all dismissed just before it was put up. Mr. Gayling never keeps many servants; sometimes he has only one, sometimes none. Nobody lives in the house when he’s away, but he always leaves the keys with us. He is always changing his servants, Mr. Gayling is; I have often heard him say that he likes new brooms.” “What is he, or what was he?” “A gentleman in the naval line, I believe, sir; they are rather ram ’uns, I’m told.” “Humph!” I said; “very odd. But do you mean to tell me that nobody will live here because they don’t know what’s in that box?” “That’s partly the reason, I’m told.” Absurd,” I was going on, when the man continued: But there’s a clause in the agreement about it; that’s what does it, sir.” “Explain,” I said. “ Well, sir, here is the clause,” and he produced the document; “ perhaps you would like to read it yourself?” Thus it ran: “And in taking the house, at the rental, and for the term specified as above, I hereby solemnly pledge my oath

never directly, or indirectly, through my own agency, or that of others, to attempt to meddle with or disturb the white chest under the glass case of the roof, or to seek in any way to discover for what purpose it has been placed there, or what it contains; and I further guarantee that no person in my employ, nor any one entering the house during my tenancy thereof, shall make any such attempt, and I herebyjundertake that in the event of their being detected in doing so, or of my doing so, to forfeit the sum of £I,OOO, and, in accordance with this agreement, have, in proper legal form, lodged the said sum with the bankers of Thomas Gayling, Esq., the lessor, as a guaranty of my good faith.” “ But for that clause,” went on the agent, as I finished readingit with some surprise, “we should have no difficulty in letting the house.” “ Pray, is the owner out of his mind?” I asked in a minute. “Not that lam aware of, sir; he is a very pleasant, affable gentleman, Mr. Gayling is, only, as I say, a little rum on some points; nothing will induce him to strike out that clause, for instance. Lor’ bless you, sir, parties never entertain it for a moment when they come to that part of the business, they drop it like a hot potato.” “Humph!” said I again, “it’s queer certainly, but I don’t see why one shouldn’t acquiesce; it doesn't matter a rap to me what’s inside the chest; I should never want to meddle with or disturb it, and I’d take very good care no one else did; I would padlock the trap-door on to the roof, and that would settle that. Ah!” I continued, after walking round the structure and looking about me a bit—“ ah! I see; precautions have been taken to prevent any access to this roof from others on either side, by this iron chevaux-de-frise; yes, no one can get over this. Well, it’s an odd freak, but I am not sure that I am going to be balked by it; I’ll think about it, Mr. Crumble.”

And the result of my thinking was, that I signed the agreement two days afterward, having conformed to the peculiar stipulation regarding the deposit. I had no fear of losing the £1,000; the interest on it was a mere addition of the rent, and the house was so exactly what I wanted that it would even then be cheap to me, with my large family of motherless children. Nevertheless, I do not deny that, after all was signed, sealed and settled, I was conscious of a lurking curiosity and suspicion regarding that mysterious erection. What could it be? What could it contain ? I was constantly saying to myself. What strange freak could possess the man to take such strong measures to guard against any penetration into the secret—measures, by-the-by, which, in themselves, were rather calculated to provoke investigation, to draw attention to the very thing he wished one to overlook ? Was Mr. Gayling a miser, hoarding up some unknown treasures in this strange fashion? Probably that was it. Well, if it was, it was no business of mine after all. My Parliamentary duties would be too urgent, I hoped, to let me dwell upon much else, so I would dismiss it, and, beyond putting the padlock on the trap-door of the roof as threatened, I took no measures to prevent any of my household indulging in speculations. I at least would not direct attention to the matter, as Mr. Gayling did, and contented my family and domestics by saying that I didn’t consider it safe for people to go on the roof. Now, in spite of my resolution, I found myself perpetually recurring to the strange chest. For the sake of quiet and air, I had appropriated the two large back and front rooms at the top of the house for my bedroom and study, and thus slept every night just beneath the white chest. Before I had been in the house a month, it began to act as a nightmare on me, an incubus I could not shake off. I was oppressed and depressed by it, in a way quite unaccountable. I was puzzled at mysSlf; I could not have believed four weeks before that I should ever have become so affected by such contemptible restlessness, disquiet and distrust. These feelings at last reached such a pitch that I finaUy changed my bedroom. I would any longer directly undemeathnhis accursed mysterious fabric. Another month passed, during which, more than once, I was tempted to go secretly onto the roof and look at the thing again; there was no harm in that, that was not forbidden in the bond, and, I need hardly say, I saw nothing to provoke any new comment. About a week after my last visit to the roof, a lengthy debate kept me late at the House of Commons, and, walking home for the sake of fresh air, I found the midsummer dawn breaking as I struck into Park lane. Reaching Oxford street I was startled by observing in the western sky a strong light, not due to reflected sunrise. At the moment I saw it a fireengine passed me at full speed, and presently the first sign of the commotion which a conflagration causes in the streets became evident. No man undergoes this experience, when he has been away from home many hours, and sees the red glare rising in the direction of his own house, without a pang of anxiety, if not of terror. How well-founded was this sensation in the present case was made evident ere I had walked another 200 yards; yes, merciful powers! it was my house that was on fire! I can scarcely record what followed; I only know that somehow I found myself in the midst of the police and firemen. That I explained to the superintendent who I was, and that under his escort I soon ascertained that all the inmates of my house, my children, their governess and the servants, were in safety, and had been taken into a neighbor’s at the rear; that, as soon as I found this to be the case, I, accompanied still by the superintendent, mounted to the top of an adjacent residence, whence the firemen were directing the hose upon the flames.

Once on this vantage point, my mind reverted to the wliite chest. Was it still there? Yes; the flames, though bursting out from all the windows of the upper stories, back and front, had not yet done more than wrench and crack portions of the glass case. For a time it seemed as if this would be the most that might happen. The water seemed to be getting the upper hand, and, as it fell in torrents on the hot roof, such clouds of steam were thrown up with the smoke as would have completely hidden everything from view, but that our position had been skillfully selected, and was well to windward of the burning mass. But presently, amid the roar of the flames, there came a dull, heavy rumble for a moment, and then, with a tremendous crash, the roof fell in. With it, of course, went the fragments and framework of the glass case, and the now-charred-and-blackened chest itself. I had my eyes upon it at the moment, and down it went deep into the utter obscurity of the dense smoke and steam which always succeeds to this climax of a conflagration. For several minutes nothing was to be discerned through the overwhelming wreaths of black-gray fumes. But presently, though the light from the fire had been quenched, there began to be visible, by the aid of the increasing light of the morning, the depths of this pit of Acheron. Yet it was not so very deep after all, for the fire having originated op the second floor,’ the falling 4 J

roof had only crashed down, as yet, as far as the drawing-room, and there, when my eyes had become accustomed to the spectacle of the indescribable debris, I plainly beheld, resting slantways across a stubborn remnant of wall, what had been the white chest; it was now split and smashed, and its contents were revealed. Good Heavens! what was it that I looked down upon? I turned my face away for a moment with a shudder, for there, protruding through the splintered fragments of its once creamy-white wooden case, was a huge leaden coffin, which, in its turn, melted, and, bursting with the heat, displayed within the unmistakable form of a shrouded corpse! I was in the act of drawing my companion’s attention to it in horror, when suddenly there flew up around it, with redoubled fury, such a mass of flame and smoke that it was entirely hidden, and soon the fire had so spread and burst out again that the horrible spectacle of this unintentional incremation was shut from sight, and the house was finally burned to the ground. I pass over what immediately followed after I had made, my way back to the friendly abode where the members of my family were sheltered. In a few days they were snugly settled again in another home, fortunately not much the worse for the terrible scare. In due course the time arrived for looking into my losses, and while I was doing so I received a letter from Mr. Gayling, who had come to town, requesting an interview. I was glad of this, for I foresaw it must lead to some explanation of the strange circumstances surrounding the agreement I had signed. My curiosity as to the contents of the white chest had been rudely satisfied, it was true, but what had been the reason for placing such an object in such a place? and this I was determined to find out. Unexpectedly Mr. Gayling disclosed it to me immediately we met. “I have asked for this interview, sir,” he said abruptly, “because I am a ruined man.” “But,” I interposed, “I am told you were fully insured.” “That has nothing to with it,” he answered; “No insurance can restore the £3,000 a year which I lose by what has happened. I am simply going to tell you certain facts; because, when you have heard them, I shall put it to you whether you will not, out of your ample means, feel that some compensation is due me. The fret is, that it has been through your tenancy of my house, and through accident or negligence on the part of some one for whom you are responsible, that my ruin has been brought about.”

“I don’t understand you.” “Listen, sir,” he went on, “and you will. I was brought up to the sea and followed it till mid-life, for I was entirely dependent on my own earnings. My only relative at this* time was an old uncle, also a sailor, and a Inost eccentric man, as you will presently see. Fifteen years ago he suddenly came into a large sum of money; I never knew how, but he retired and took that house. He had only been in it three years when a mortal sickness overtook him; he sent for me. “‘Tom,’ said he, ‘I am dying, and I don’t like it; I am terrified, not so much at the thought of death as at the thought of burial; a sailor’s grave I would not mind, but to be boxed up and thrust into the earth, no, Tom, I won’t stand it. I look to you to see that it doesn’t happen ; and I have taken measures to make sure that you do see that it doesn’t happen. I’ve made my will, Tom; I’ve left you all I possess, but on one condition, and it is that you are my heir so long as I am well above ground, and no longer—mark the words, “ Well above ground.” Directly I am buried, or my remains are allowed to mingle with mother-earth, as she is called—she was no mother to me; the sea was my mother, for I was born at sea—all my money, mind, goes straight to the Seamen’s Hospital, every penny of it.’ “ ‘But what am Ito do? ’ I asked of my uncle; ‘ how shall Ibe able to carry out such a strange condition? Have you so expressed it in your will?’ “ ‘ Yes, indeed, I have,’ he answered; ‘and legal and binding you’ll find it, as expressed in the words, “so long as I am well above ground.” ’ “ ‘ But what am Ito do with you ? I again asked. “ ‘ Oh, run me up aloft; masthead me; anything you like, but don’t bury me.’

“ Well,” went on Mr. Gayling, “to make a long story short, I found that the conditions of the old man’s will were binding, and his executors and myself hit upon the plan of hoisting the coffin on to the roof of his house. Under certain conditions we found that it was possible for us legally to do this. So I dismissed my three servants, employed a country undertaker, my old ship’s carpenter, and a foreign glazier, in order that the matter should not be talked of in the neighborhood, and personally saw the arrangements carried out. You can now understand my reasons for not having it meddled with: yes, sir; and you can now understand that the condition of the will must take effect. No sign of the coffin or the body even was to be discovered in the ruins of that house. I have had a rigid search made, to no purpose; the old gentleman’s remains have been consumed, have mingled with mother, earth, and the money passes as a matter of course to the Seamen’s Hospital. I have not a penny in the world. What can you do for me ? ” It is not necessary for me to say what I did for Mr. Gayling, but finding by a visit to Doctors’ Commons, and other evidence, that his story was substantially correct, I felt his case was a hard one, certainly a strange one, and I acted, I hope, not ungenerously toward him All The Year Round.