Dr. Cairn

“ THE FACE IN THE ORCHID-HOUSE
Dr. Cairn walked to the window, with its old-fashioned leaded panes. A lamp stood by the bedside, and he had tilted the shade so that it shone upon the pale face of the patient—Myra Duquesne.
Two days had wrought a dreadful change in her. She lay with closed eyes, and sunken face upon which ominous shadows played. Her respiration was imperceptible. The reputation of Dr. Bruce Cairn was a well deserved one, but this case puzzled him. He knew that Myra Duquesne was dying before his eyes ”

“ A tremendous secret was locked up within the heart of Dr. Bruce Cairn. [50]
Sometimes we seem to be granted a glimpse of the guiding Hand that steers men's destinies; then, as comprehension is about to dawn, we lose again our temporal lucidity of vision. The following incident illustrates this.
Sir Elwin Groves, of Harley Street, took Dr. Cairn aside at the club one evening.
"I am passing a patient on to you, Cairn," he said; "Lord Lashmore."
"Ah!" replied Cairn, thoughtfully. "I have never met him." ”

“ Strike, and strike truly!”
The whisper grew sibilant—serpentine. Dr. Cairn felt the hilt of a dagger thrust into his right hand, and in the dim, mysterious light he looked down at one who lay in a bed close beside him.
At sight of the sleeper's face—the perfectly chiseled face, with the long black lashes resting on the ivory cheeks—he forgot all else, forgot the place wherein he stood, forgot his beautiful guide, and only remembered that he held a dagger in his hand, and that Antony Ferrara lay there, sleeping! ”

“ Cairn, his son, and Myra Duquesne met together in the library. The girl looked rather pale.
An odor of incense pervaded the house, coming from the doctor's study, wherein he had locked himself early in the evening, after issuing instructions that he was not to be disturbed. The exact nature of the preparations which he had been making, Robert Cairn was unable to conjecture; and some instinct warned him that his father would not welcome any inquiry upon the matter. He realized that Dr. Cairn proposed to fight Antony Ferrara with his own weapons. ”

“ Robert Cairn was listening intently.
"All this brings me back to a point which I have touched upon before, sir," he said: "To my certain knowledge, the late Sir Michael and yourself have delved into the black mysteries of Egypt more deeply than any men of the present century. Yet Antony Ferrara, little more than a boy, has mastered secrets which you, after years of research, have failed to grasp. What does this mean, sir?"
Dr. Cairn, again locking his hands behind him, stared out of the window.
"He is not an ordinary mortal," continued his son. "He is supernormal—and supernaturally wicked. ”

“ Cairn," came softly. "As you say, I raise forces of evil—"
Dr. Cairn spun about. In three strides he was standing over Antony Ferrara, fists clenched and his sinewy body tense in every fibre. His face was pale, as was apparent even in that vague light, and his eyes gleamed like steel.
"You raise other forces," he said—and his voice, though steady was very low; "evil forces, also."
Antony Ferrara, invoker of nameless horrors, shrank before him—before the primitive Celtic man whom unwittingly he had invoked. Dr. Cairn was spare and lean, but in perfect physical condition. ”

“ As one might have anticipated, there was nothing visible to account for the odour.
The emotion of fear is a strange and complex one. In this breath of decay rising to his nostril, Cairn found something fearsome. He opened the door, stepped out on to the landing, and closed the door behind him.
At an hour close upon midnight, Dr. Bruce Cairn, who was about to retire, received a wholly unexpected visit from his son. Robert Cairn followed his father into the library and sat down in the big, red leathern easy-chair. The doctor tilted the lamp shade, directing the light upon Robert's face. ”

“ The crawling things, then, which reeked abominably might be Elementals (so Dr. Cairn reasoned) superimposed upon Robert Cairn's consciousness by a directing, malignant intelligence. On the other hand they might be mere glamours—or thought-forms—thrust upon him by the same wizard mind; emanations from an evil, powerful will.
His reflections were interrupted by the ringing of the 'phone bell. He took up the receiver.
"Hullo!" [43]
"That you, sir? All's clear here, now. I'm turning in." ”

“ He knew that everything depended upon secrecy. Antony Ferrara must not suspect that his black laboratory was known.
Cairn decided to return to Half Moon Street without delay, fully satisfied with the result of his investigation. He walked rapidly back to where the cab waited, gave the man his father's address, and, in three-quarters of an hour, was back in Half Moon Street.
Dr. Cairn had not yet dismissed the last of his patients. Myra, accompanied by Miss Saunderson, was out shopping; and Robert found himself compelled to possess his soul in patience. ”

“ Ten minutes—do you understand?"
"Yes! yes!—Merciful God!—if you can help me, do it, sir, or—"
"Hold out, boy! In ten minutes you'll have won."
Dr. Cairn hung up the receiver, raced from the library, and grabbing a cap from the rack in the hall, ran down the steps and bounded into the waiting car, shouting an address to the man.
Piccadilly was gay with supper-bound theatre crowds when he leapt out and ran into the hall-way which had been the scene of Robert's meeting with Myra Duquesne. Dr. Cairn ran past the lift doors and went up the stairs three steps at a time. ”

“ Cairn was the speaker. Sime nodded, wiping the perspiration from his face the while.
"It was bad enough when I came here before," he said hoarsely. "It is terrible work for a heavy man. But to-night it seems to be reeking. I have smelt nothing like it in my life."
"Correct," replied Dr. Cairn grimly. "I trust that, once clear of this place, you will never smell it again."
"What is it?" [131]
"It is the incense," was the reply. "Come! The worst of our task is before us yet." ”

“ Robert Cairn nodded.
“It is the place of which Myra dreamed, sir—I have not the slightest doubt about that. What we have to find out is at what times of the day and sight he goes there.”
“I doubt,” interrupted Dr. Cairn, “if he often visits the place during the day. ”

“ I ran from my own rooms, grabbed a hat and coat; and left my dressing gown on the floor!"
He turned, leaning both elbows on the mantel-piece, and buried his face in his hands.
"Have another drink," said Dr. Cairn. "You called on Antony Ferrara to-day, didn't you? How did he receive you?"
"That brings me to something else I wanted to tell you," continued Robert, squirting soda-water into his glass. "Myra—goes there."
"Where—to his chambers?"
"Yes."
Dr. Cairn began to pace the room again.
"I am not surprised," he admitted; "she has always been taught to regard him in the light of a brother. ”

“ He stopped, and an expression, almost of fear, crept over his stoical features.
"That sixteen-inch passage," he muttered—"with Antony Ferrara at the further end!"
"Exactly!" said Dr. Cairn. "But I consider it my duty to the world to proceed. I warn you that you [128] are about to face the greatest peril, probably, which you will ever be called upon to encounter. I do not ask you to do this. I am quite prepared to go alone."
"That remark was wholly unnecessary, doctor," said Sime rather truculently. "Suppose the other two proceed to their post."
"But, sir—" began Robert Cairn. ”

“ Cairn, quietly, closing the door behind him, "what is this story about the orchid-houses, and why did you not mention it before?"
The man stared persistently into the shadows of the room, avoiding Dr. Cairn's glance.
"Since he has had the courage to own up," interrupted Mr. Saunderson, "I have overlooked the matter: but he was afraid to speak before, because he had no business to be in the orchid-houses." His voice grew suddenly fierce—"He knows it well enough!" ”

“ Dr. Cairn stared at his son with an odd expression in his eyes.
“Some histories ignore her existence entirely,” he said. “I shall return to my room to dress now,” he added, with an evident desire to change the subject. “Do you dress also. We cannot afford to sleep while the situation of that house remains unknown to us.”
Robert Cairn nodded. His father stood up, and went out of the room.
Dawn saw the two of them peering from the balcony upon the streets of Port Said, already dotted with moving figures, for the Egyptian is an early riser. ”

“ Cairn excitedly—"you are sure of that? You mean that the purchase was made since Ferrara—"
"Ceased to visit the house? Yes. Why!—it must have been the very day after!"
Dr. Cairn clearly was labouring under tremendous excitement.
"Where did he buy these orchids?" he asked, evenly.
"From someone who came to the house—someone he had never dealt with before." [164]
The doctor, his hands resting upon his knees, was rapidly drumming with his fingers.
"And—did he cultivate them?"
"Two only proved successful. One is on the point of blooming—if it is not blooming already. ”

“ Dr. Cairn shook his head.
"To think that whilst we have been scouring Egypt from Port Said to Assouan—he has been laughing at us in London!" he said. "Directly after the affair at Méydûm he must have left the country—how, Heaven only knows. That letter is three weeks old, now?"
Robert Cairn nodded. "What may have happened since—what may have happened!"
"You take too gloomy a view. James Saunderson is a Roman guardian. Even Antony Ferrara could make little headway there."
"But Myra says that—Ferrara is—a frequent visitor." ”

“ In the face of science, in the face of modern skepticism, in the face of our belief in a benign God, this creature, Antony Ferrara, has proved himself conclusively to be—”
“He is what the benighted ancients called a magician,” interrupted Dr. Cairn quietly. “He is what was known in the Middle Ages as a wizard. What that means, exactly, few modern thinkers know; but I know, and one day others will know. Meanwhile his shadow lies upon a certain house.”
Robert Cairn shook his clenched fists in the air. In some men the gesture would have seemed melodramatic ”

“ Plunging his hand into the bag of confetti, which he carried, he leapt, exulting, to his revenge: when a sudden gust of wind passed sibilantly through the palm tops, and glancing upward, Cairn saw that the blue sky was overcast and the stars gleaming dimly, as through a veil. That moment of hesitancy proved fatal to his project, for with a little excited scream the girl dived under his outstretched arm and fled back towards the fountain. ”

“ The whole horrible phantasmagoria—together with the odour of ancient rottenness—faded like a fevered dream, at the moment that Dr. Cairn had burst in upon the creator of it.
Robert Cairn stood up, weakly, trembling; then dropped upon his knees and sobbed out prayers of thankfulness that came from his frightened soul.
[49]
CHAPTER VII SIR ELWIN GROVES' PATIENT
When a substantial legacy is divided into two shares, one of which falls to a man, young, dissolute and clever, and the other to a girl, pretty and inexperienced, there is laughter in the hells. ”

“ Robert Cairn nodded, and finally the local man withdrew, highly mystified, but unable to contradict so celebrated a physician as Dr. Bruce Cairn.
The latter seated himself in an armchair, and rested his chin in the palm of his left hand. Robert Cairn paced restlessly about the library. Both were waiting, expectantly. At half-past two Felton brought in a tray of refreshments, but neither of the men attempted to avail themselves of the hospitality.
"Miss Duquesne?" asked the younger.
"She has just gone to sleep, sir."
"Good," muttered Dr. Cairn. "Blessed is youth." ”

“ Whatever he is, he has a human body and there are bullets, there are knives, there are a hundred drugs in the British Pharmacopœia!"
"Quite so," answered Dr. Cairn, watching his son closely, and, by his own collected manner, endeavouring to check the other's growing excitement. "I am prepared at any personal risk to crush Antony Ferrara as I would crush a scorpion ”

“ Cairn suddenly opened the library door and entered.
“Well?” he said eagerly.
Robert Cairn leaped forward.
“I have tracked him, sir!” he cried. “My God, while Myra was at Saunderson's, she was almost next door to the beast! His den is in a field no more than a thousand yards from the garden wall—from Saunderson's orchid houses!”
“He is daring,” muttered Dr. Cairn; “but his selection of that site served two purposes. The spot was suitable in many ways, and we were least likely to look for him next door, as it were. It was a move characteristic of the accomplished criminal that he is.” ”

“ Cairn directed all the energies of his mind to resistance. Ill defined reflection must at all costs be avoided, for the brain vaguely employed he knew to be more susceptible to attack than that directed in a well ordered channel.
Clocks were chiming the hour—he did not know what hour, nor did he seek to learn. He felt that he was at rapier play with a skilled antagonist, and that to glance aside, however momentarily, was to lay himself open to a fatal thrust.
He had not moved from the table, so that only the reading lamp upon it was lighted, and much of the room lay in half shadow. ”

“ He was conscious of a sort of repugnance; and, prompted by this, he carefully washed his hands, as if the cord had been some unclean thing. Then he sat down to work, only to realize immediately that work was impossible until he had informed his father of his encounter with Ferrara.
Lifting the telephone receiver, he called up Dr. Cairn, but the doctor was not at home. He replaced the receiver, and sat Staring vaguely at his open notebook.
III
For close upon an hour Robert Cairn sat at his writing table, endeavoring to puzzle out a solution of the mystery of Ferrara's motive. ”