Adam Hull Shirk

“ We had in his man, and the document was duly signed, after which he drew a long breath of relief and, with a return of something like his natural manner, passed me his cigar-case and leaned back in his chair, smoking comfortably.
"I've a story to tell you, Madden," he said between puffs, "and it's a queer yarn, too. You'll think—but never mind. Listen first, and say what you like afterward. Only—" he glanced about him with an apprehensive expression that fairly set my nerves atingle. "I hope we have time." ”

“ Fallon took up the thing and examined it with deep interest. It was a vegetable of some sort, of a sickly flesh color so far as the root was concerned; black mold still clung to it, and when viewed from a certain angle, the root portion bore a most uncanny resemblance to a human body.
"This," said the psychologist, slowly, "is a mandrake. One of the first I've ever seen!"
"Mandrake?" Burton repeated in a puzzled tone.
"Exactly. The one plant concerning which superstition is almost universal. Many books have been written about it. ”

“ Anyway, I may tell you that the Nile dwellers, as they were called, recognized as their supreme deity, Osiris, lord of the underworld. By some he has been identified with the Sun and, with the forty assessors of the dead, he was supposed to have judged the souls brought before him by Horus in the double halls of truth, after their good and evil deeds had been weighed by Anubis.
"The Egyptians reverenced Osiris with as devout worship as the Chinese give to Buddha, and the high priests of Osiris were regarded with almost as much awe as the deity himself. ”

“ And just as it came 'way, they was the most awful onearthly shriek I ever heard in all my born days. Miss Marjorie she yelled out, too, and started to runnin' away. I run, myself. And then I knew you'd oughter know."
"Thank you, Peleg," said the doctor with a look of dismay on his face as he glanced at Fallon. "Here's a dollar for you. Don't say anything about this to a soul."
Mouthing his thanks, the half-wit hastened away. Burton turned to his friend.
"What does it mean?" he asked.
"It means," said the psychologist, "that the sooner we see Miss Marjorie, the better. Come along." ”

“ But I can assure you of one thing. There is a cause for her malady that is not altogether pathological. It goes deeper, my boy—we've got to locate it."
On the following day, while the two men were seated again in the doctor's consulting room, Peleg White put in his appearance in a state of extreme agitation. Admitted to the office, he plumped down on the table a grotesque object that resembled nothing the physician could remember having seen in his experience.
"I just come from Miss Marjorie," panted the half-wit. "She wanted I should sell this durn thing for forty cents or less. ”

“ In all our studies and investigations, however, we have never been able actually to identify Osiris, but it is now generally conceded that he was believed to have lived on earth at one time and that it was only after his death that he assumed deific prerogatives. ”

“ It's God's justice that the one responsible suffered the fate he intended to inflict on another."
"Squire Broadman?"
"Of course. He would have lost control of the estate when Marjorie married, would he not?"
"Yes."
"That's it. Probably he has speculated with the money he held in trust. Now as to the Mandrake—and Valdemar: The cemetery story and the business of selling the plant were my first rays of light. In the library here I found, among other books, Thomas Newton's 'Herball to the Bible.' It had been much used—lately. No dust on it, such as the other books showed. ”

“ The ambulance is coming, and they'll get Valdemar—it seems they've got enough to hold him on, anyway—obtaining money under false pretenses or something."
Marjorie had fallen into a deep sleep under the ministrations of the psychologist, and Burton drew his friend into the library.
"For heaven's sake," he begged, "tell me what it means."
The other removed from his pocket another of those ill-favored vegetables and laid it on the table: "There," he said, "is the root of the whole matter. You see tied about it a bit of silk thread? I broke it with my cane. ”

“ OSIRIS
The Weird Tale of an Egyptian Mummy
By ADAM HULL SHIRK
THE recent and lamentable death of Sir Richard Parmenter, F. R. G. S., is too fresh in the public's mind to warrant further reference, and were it not that I feel myself capable of throwing light upon the incidents contributing to the sudden and apparently unnecessary snuffing out of a valuable life, I should refrain from again alluding to it. ”

“ You remember my writing you last Fall that I hoped to be married before so very long? Well, that hope may never be realized. This is the story: A couple of years ago, Power Marbury and his wife and two daughters came to Cranways. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1931, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 91 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”