Matthew Phipps Shiel

“ When, by the way of endless labyrinths, we reached the address the Doctor at last spoke:
"There is no light, you see; he is, probably, still out. Suppose you wait till he comes; then speak, take him under the lamp there, see the boots, and ask him to drink with you. I, waiting at yonder corner, will then join you."
Flakes of snow drifted downwards. I walked sentinel-wise; the Doctor crouched still at his post. From a Swedish chapel I heard the strokes of twelve, and at the same moment a working-man approached me.
"Cold tonight, mate," I said, carelessly. ”

“ I could see nothing.
"It is blood," continued Hardy, gaining courage from the Doctor's calm--"you know it is, or perhaps you were too mad that night to know anything. Who but a madman would have carried the lady's body all the distance to that old chest; and there, didn't you chase Jim round and round the room and stab him like a dog, because you said one body wasn't enough to fill the chest? And if I hadn't slipped down to the balcony by a spout, wouldn't you have killed me, too ”

“ I said, "the boots were found to be odd."
"But that is a clue!" he said. "I have the man in my grasp. Have you now told me everything?"
"Except that a gentleman had called to see Miss Raphash that afternoon."
"Ah--what sort of man?"
"Tall, black-dressed, middle-aged, with side-whiskers. I have seem him here when you have been away. Mrs. Grant says that Miss Raphash spoke to him with some show of anger, though no words could be made out."
"Ah!" said the Doctor, and resumed a restless walk. ”

“ He opened the window. Below was the stone balcony of the first floor of the wing; and from it to a point near the window a tin rain- spout ran up. It was among the bushes of the garden beneath the balcony that the stolen valuables had been found.
"He climbed up, you see, by the spout," said the Doctor. "The feat seems superhuman: but there is the spout, and here is the turned window-catch. We must confront phenomena as we find them." ”

“ I now, in fact, considered my duty done when I had described to the police the fellow with the odd boots, who at this time was in hiding.
It was a month later that I observed one evening, as I walked about the grounds, that a man, hearing my approaching footsteps, had ducked his head from my sight in a clump of bushes--the very bushes, by the way, in which the stolen articles had been discovered.
I was accompanied by a large mastiff. Coming closer to the spot, I said aloud:
"Do not run, simply rise, and hold your hands over your head. I happen to be armed--and you see the dog." ”

“ There was no other visible means of egress, and I was looking about for Hardy, when the gate-door banged suddenly behind us, and a bar clanged down into a staple in the outer wall.
So that we were prisoners. That the man had entered the cellar was certain, and also that he had found some means of leaving it other than the door. But here our knowledge ended. The darkness was Erebus itself; whole clouds rose with every step and choked us ”

“ I nearly tore his eyes out over them same boots. I buys my lord a seven-and-eleven pair in the summer and sends him hop-picking in them; two months ago he turns up with his own boot on the right foot and somebody else's on the other."
"And what accounts did he give of hisself?"
"There's where the provoking part of it comes in. Every time I asks him about it, it's 'Drop it, mate', and 'Drop it, I tell you, mate.' He was on the job, you may bet, got into some scrape, and now dursn't say nothink about it." ”

“ It would seem that the assassin, or one of them, before gaining entrance, drew off his boots, and on running away left them, for some undreamable reason, behind him."
"It is very simple. He went in a pair of yours or mine."
"No. Had his foot, as measured by his boot, been one-third as small, it could never have been urged into a boot of yours or mine."
"And yet Mrs. Grant says he was a small man; it is peculiar he should have so immense a foot." ”

“ I said. I led him by the arm into a room of the house, instructing Mrs. Grant at the entrance to send for a couple of the rather distant local police. I then closed the door, and proceeded to examine my prisoner. The creature wept!
"Now, Hardy," I said, "dry your tears, and tell me how came you in those bushes tonight." ”

“ I started running; he looked like a spirit to me; but Jim, who was more bolder like than me, he stands his ground; soon he whistles to me, and when I come up, he ses, ''Ere's a lark, Charlie,' ses he, 'the old chap's on the job hisself!' 'Partnership's a leaky ship, Jim,' ses I; but he only ses, 'Oh, bother, live and let live.' Well, pretty soon I and Jim take our boots off, and we all get inside. No sooner inside, than the old man takes the lead, showing the way, telling us what to do, and me and Jim does everything he tells us, quite nat'ral like. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1947, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 75 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. ”