Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 309, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1912 — The ADVENTURE Of THE DEVIL'S FOOT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The ADVENTURE Of THE DEVIL'S FOOT

(Continued.) “I am glad to say that my investigation has not been entirely barren,” he remarked. “I cannot remain to discuss the matter with the police, but I should be exceedingly obliged, Mr. Roundhay, if you would give the inspector my compliments and direct his attention to the bedroom window and to the sitting-room lamp. Each is suggestive, and together they are almost conclusive. If the .police woulcj desire further information I shall he happy to see any of them at the cottage. And now, Watson, I think that perhaps we 6hall be better employed elsewhere.” It may be that the police resented the intrusion of an amateur, or that they imagined themselves to be upon some hopeful line of investigation; but it is certain that we heard nothing from them for the next two days. During this time Holmes spent some of his time smoking and dreaming in the cottage; but a greater portion in country walks which he undertook alone, returning after many hours without, remark as to where he had been. One experiment served to show me the line of his investigation. He had bought a lamp which was the duplicate of the one which had burned In the room of Mortimer Tregennis on the morning of the tragedy. This he filled with the same oil as that used at the vicarage, and he carefully timed the period which it would take to be exhausted. Another experiment which he made was of a more unpleasant nature, and one which I am not likely ever to forget. “You will remember, Watson,” said Holmes one afternoon, "that there Is a single common point of resemblance in the varying reports which have reached us. This concerns the effect of the atmosphere of the room in each case upon those who have first entered it. You will recollect that Mortimer Tregennis, in describing the episode of his last visit to his brother’s house, remarked that the doctor on entering the room fell into a chair? You had forgotten? Well, I can answer for It that It was so. Now, you will remember also that Mrs. Porter, the housekeeper, told us that she herself fainted upon entering the room and had afterwards opened the window. In the second case—that of Mortimer Tregennis himself —you cannot have forgotten the horrible stuffiness of the room when we arrived, though the servant had thrown open the window. That servant, I found upon inquiry, was so ill that she had gone to her bed. You will admit, Watson, that these facts are very suggestiveIn each case there is evidence of a poisonous atmosphere. In each case, also, there is combustion going on in the room —in the one case a fire, in the other a lamp. The fire was needed, but the lamp was lit —as a comparison of the oil consumed will show —long after it was broad daylight. Why? Surely because there is some connection between three things—the burning, the Btuffv atmosphere, and, finally, the madness or death of those unfortunate people. That is clear, is it not?” “It would appear so.” “At least may accept it as a working hypothesis. We will suppose, then, that something was burned in eachcase which produced an atmosphere causing strange toxic effects. Very good. In the first instance —that of the Tregennis family—this substanoe was placed in the fire. Now, the window was shut, but the fire would naturally carry fumes to some -extent up the chimney. Hence, one would expect the effects of the poison to be less than in the second case, where there was less escape for the vapor. The result seems to indicate that it was so, since in the first case /only the woman, who had presumably the more sensitive organism, was killed, the others exhibiting that temporary or permanent lunacy which is evidently the first effect of the drug. In the second case the result was complete. The facts, therefore, seem to bear out the theory of a poison which worked by combustion. "With this train of reasoning in my ■ head I naturally looked about in Mortimer Tregennis’ room to find some remains of this substance. The obvious place to look was the talc shield or ■moke guard of the lamp. There, sure <m«ngh, I perceived a number of flaky ■shea, sad round the edges a fringe of brownish powdeF, which had not yet been consumed. «Half of this I took, as you saw, and I placed it In ■a envelope.” "Why half. Holmes r*

"It Is not for me. my dear Watson, to stand in the way of the official police force. I leave them all the evidence which I found. The poison still remained upon the talc, had they the wit to find it Now, Watson, we will light our lamp; we will, however, take the precaution to open our window to avoid the premature decease of two deserving members of society, and you will seat yourself near that open window in an arm-chair —unless, like a sensible man, you determine to have nothing to do with the affair. Oh, you will see it out, will you? I thought I knew my Watson. This chair I will place opposite yours, so that we may be the same distance from the poison, and face to face. The door we will leave ajar. Each Is now In a position to watch the other and to -bring the experiment to an end should the symptoms seem alarming. Is that all clear? Well, then, I take our powder—or what remains of it—from the envelope, and I lay it above the burning lamp. So! Now, Watson, let us sit down and await developments.” They were not long in coming. I had hardly settled in my chair before I was conscious of a thick, musky odor, subtle and nauseous. At the very firSt whiff of it my brain and my imagination were beyond all control. A thick black cloud swirled before my eyes, and my mind told me that in this cloud, unseen as yet, hut about to spring out upon my appalled senses, lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was monstrous and inconceivably wicked in the universe. Vague shapes swirled and swam amid the dark cloud-bank, each a menace and a warning of something coming, the advent of some unspeakable dweller upon the threshold, w’hose very shadow would blast my soul. A freezing horror took possession of me. I felt that my hair was rising, and that my eyes were protruding, that my mouth was opened, and my tongue like leather. The turmoil w ithin my brain was Such that something must surely snap. I tried to scream, and was vaguely aware of some hoarse croak which was my own voice, but distant and detached from myself. At the same moment, in some effort of escape, I broke through that cloud of despair, and had a glimpse of Holmes’ face, white, rigid and drawn with horror—the very look which I had seen upon the features of the dead. It w T as that vision which gave me an Instant of sanity and of strength. I dashed from my chair, threw my arms round Holmes, and together w r e lurched through the door, and an instant afterwards had thrown ourselves down upon the grass plot and were lying side by side, conscious only of the glorious sunshine whiGh was bursting its way through the hellish cloud of terror which had girt us in. Slowly it rose from our souls like the mists from a landscape, until peace and reason had returned, and we w T ere sitting up on the grass, wiping our clammy foreheads, and looking with apprehension at each other to mark the last traces of that terrific experience which we had undergone. ->

“Upon my word, Watson!” said Holmes at last, with an, unsteady voice, “I owe you both my thanks and an apology. It was an unjustifiable experiment even for oneself, and doubly so for a friend. I am really very sorry.” “You know,” I answered, with some emotion, for I had never seen so much of Holmes’ heart before, “that it is my greatest joy and privilege to help you.” He relapsed at once into that halfhumorous, half-cynical vein which was his habitual attitude about

him. “It would be superfluous to drive us mad, my dear Watson,” said he. “A candid observer would certainly declare that we were so already before we embarked upon so wild an experiment. I confess that I never imagined that-the effect could be so sudden and so severe.” He dashed into the cottage, and, reappearing with the burning lamp held at full arm’s length, he threw it among a bank of brambles. “We must give the room a little time to clear. I take It, Watson, that you have no longer a shadow of a doubt as to how these tragedies were produced?” “None whatever," “But the cause remains as obscure as before. Come into the arbor here, and let us discuss it together. That villainous stuff seems stilt to linger round my throat. I think we must admit that all the evidenoe points to this man, Mortimer Tregennis, having been the criminal in the first tragedy, though he was the victim in the second one. We must remember, in the first place, that there Is some story

of a family quarrel, followed by a reconciliation. How bitter that quarrel may have been, or how hollow the reconciliation, we cannot tell. When I think of Mortimer Tregennis, with the foxy faoe and the small, shrewd, beady eyes behind the spectacles, he is not a man whom I should judge to be of a particularly forgiving disposition. Well, In the next plaoe, you will remember that this idea of tome one moving in the garden, which took our attention for a moment from the real cause of the tragedy, emanated from him. He had a motive In misleading us. Finally, if he did not throw this substance 1 into the fire at the moment of leaving the room, who did so? The affair happened immediately after his departure. Had anyone else come in, the family would certainly have risen from the table. Besides, In peaceful Cornwall, visitors do not arrive aften ten o’clock at night. We may take it, then, that all the evidence points to Mortimer Tregennis as the culprit." “Then his own death was suicide!" “Well, Watson, it Is on the face of It a not impossible supposition. The man who had the guilt upon his sous : of having brought such. a fate upon his own’.family might well be driven by remorse to inflict it upon himself. There are, however, some cogent reasons against it. Fortunately, there is one man in England w r ho knows all about it, and I have made arrange-

ments by which we shall hear the facts this afternoon from his own lips. Ah! he is a little before his time. Perhaps you would kindly step this way, Dr. Leon Sterndale. We have been conducting a chemical experiment indoors which has left our little room hardly fit for the reception of so distinguished a visitor.” I had heard the click of the garden gate, and now the majestic figure of the great African explorer appeared upon the path. He turned in some surprise towards the rustic arbor In which we sat. “You sent for me, Mr, Holmes. I had your note about an hour ago, and .1 have come, though I really do not know why I should obey your summons.” “Perhaps we can clear the point up before w<e separate,” said Holmes. “Meanwhile, I am much obliged to you for your courteous acquiescence. You will excuse this informal reception in the open air, but my friend Watson and I have nearly finished an additional chapter to what the papers call the Cornish horror, and we prefer a clear atmosphere for the present Perhaps, since the matters which we have to discuss will affect you personally in a very intimate fashion, It is as well that we should talk where there can be no eavesdropping.” The explorer took a cigar from his lips and gazed sternly at my ; companion. “I am at a loss to know, sir,” he said, “what you can have to speak about which affects me personally in a very intimate fashion.” “The killing of Mortimer Tregennis,” said Holmes. For a moment I wished that I were armed. Sterndale’s fierce face turned to a dusky red, his eyes glared, and the knotted,- passionate veins started out in his forehead, while he sprang forward with clenched hands,towards my companion. Then he stopped, and with a violent effort he resumed a cold, rigid calmness which was, perhaps, more suggestive of danger than his hot-headed outburst. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

A Thick Black Cloud Swirled Before My Eyes.

“You Sent for Me, Mr. Holmes.”