Sax Rohmer

“ Coram was staring at the open door, but seemed afraid to approach it. "We have been using the attendant's keys at night. My own are on my study mantelpiece now."
"I think not," continued the thick voice. "Your daughter has them'"
"My daughter!" cried Coram, and sprang to the open door. "Heavens! Hilda! Hilda!"
"She is somnambulistic!" whispered Moris Klaw in my ear. "When certain unusual sounds—such as heavy vehicles at night—reach her in her sleep (ah! how little we know of the phenomenon of sleep!) , she arises, and, in common with many sleepwalkers, always acts the same. ”

“ Something to-night awoke her ere she could relock the door. The fright of so awaking made her to swoon."
Coram's kindly voice and the sound of a girl sobbing affrightedly reached us.
"It was my yell of fear, Mr. Klaw!" said Grimsby, shamefacedly. "She looked like a ghost!"
"I understand," rumbled Moris Klaw, soothingly. "As I see her in my sleep she is very awesome! I will show you the picture Isis has made from my etheric photograph. I saw it, finished, earlier to-night. It confirmed me that the Miss Hilda with the harp in her hand was poor Conway's last thought in life!" ”

“ The words and the manner of their delivery thrilled us all.
"What is it," continued the weird old man, "but the odic force, the ether—say it how you please—which carries the wireless message, the lightning? It is a huge, subtile (archaic) subtle, sensitive plate. Inspiration, what you call bad luck and good luck—all are but reflections from it. The supreme thought preceding death is imprinted on the surrounding atmosphere like a photograph. I have trained this"—he tapped his brow—"to reproduce those photographs! May I sleep here to-night, Mr. Coram?" ”

“ There are three windows in the Greek Room, with wall cases between, and, in the gap corresponding to the east window and just by the door opening into the next room, is a chair for the attendant. Conway lay downward on the polished floor with his limbs partly under this chair and his clenched fists thrust straight out before him. His head, turned partially to one side, was doubled underneath his breast in a most dreadful manner, indisputably pointing to a broken neck, and his commissionaire's cap lay some distance away, under a table supporting a heavy case of vases. ”

“ To one who is distasteful to her she says: 'Replace for me my harp.' He does so. He is a dead man! God! what cleverness!
"Where has it lain for generations before your Sir Menzies find it? No man knows. But it has still its virtues! How did the poor Menzies die? Throw himself from his room window, I recently learn. This harp certainly was in his room. Conway, after dashing, mad, about the place, springs head downward from the attendant's chair. Macalister dies in exhaustion and convulsions!"
A silence; when—
"What caused the harp to play?" asked Coram.
Moris Klaw looked hard at him. ”

“ I have seen crime upon the Gold Coast, where the black fever it danced in the air above the murdered one like a lingering soul, and I have seen blood flow in Arctic Lapland, where it was frozen up into red ice almost before it left the veins. ”

“ I held my breath and listened. "It's the thunder in the distance," said Beale.
"You are wrong," I answered. "It is someone knocking at the hall entrance! There goes the bell, now!"
Coram gave a sigh of relief. "Heavens!" he said; "I've no nerves left! Come on and see who it is."
The three of us, keeping very close together, passed quickly through the Greek Room and down into the hall. As the ringing continued, Coram unbolted the door—and there, on the steps, stood Moris Klaw!
Some vague idea of his mission flashed through my mind. "You are too late!" I cried. "Grimsby has gone!" ”

“ Grimsby shrugged his shoulders.
"I'm simply telling you what she told me, sir."
"I should suspect the man to be an impostor," said Coram, "if it were not for the extraordinary confirmation of his theory furnished by the footprints. They certainly looked like those of a woman!"
Remembering how Moris Klaw had acted, I sought out the constable who had been on duty at the corner of South Grafton Square on the night of the second tragedy. ”

“ There is no other means of entrance or exit. The three windows are iron-barred and they have not been tampered with. Moreover, the watch shows that he was there at three o'clock, and nothing larger than a mouse could find shelter in the place; there is nowhere a man could hide."
"Then the murderer followed him into the Greek Room."
"Might I venture to point out that, had he done so, he would have been there this morning when Beale arrived? The door of the Greek Room was locked and the keys were found inside upon the floor!" ”

“ Her brain is overwrought! She unlocks the case and strikes the cords of the harp, relocking the door, replacing the keys—I before have known such cases—then retires as she came. Who takes the harp from her hands, or raises it, if she has laid it down upon its side, dies! These dead attendants were brave fellows both, for, hearing the music, they came running, saw how the matter was, and did not waken the sleeping player. Conway was poisoned as he returned the harp to its case ”

“ This fourth room is on the ground floor and is entered through the hall from the Square, the other three, containing the principal and more valuable exhibits, are upon the first floor and are reached by a flight of stairs from the hall. The remainder of the building is occupied by an office and the curator's private apartments, and is completely shut off from that portion open to the public, the only communicating door—an iron one—being kept locked.
The room described in the catalogue as the "Greek Room" proved to be the scene of the tragedy. ”

“ The funds only allow of the appointment of four attendants: three for day and one for night duty."
"Do you think you'll find any difficulty in getting a man?"
"No," replied Coram. "I know of a steady man who will come as soon as we are ready for him."
I slept but little that night, and was early afoot and around to the Museum. Isis Klaw was there before me, carrying the red cushion, and her father was deep in conversation with Coram.
Detective-Inspector Grimsby approached me. ”

“ That was practically all I learned from the constable, but it served to set me thinking. Was it merely a coincidence that, at almost the exact hour of the previous tragedy, a heavy pantechnicon had passed the Museum?
"It's not once in six months," the man assured me, "that any vehicle but a tradesman's cart goes round the Square. You see, it doesn't lead anywhere, but this Pickford chap he was rattling by before I could stop him, and though I shouted he couldn't hear me, the engine making such a noise, so I just let him drive round and find out for himself." ”

“ Beale, the commissionaire, remained in the hall and lower room—it was catalogued as the "Bronze Room"—Coram patrolled the room at the top of the stairs, Grimsby the next, or Greek, Room, and I the Egyptian Room. None of the doors was locked, and Grimsby, by his own special request, held the keys of the cases in the Greek Room. ”