Part 13 (1/2)

After that we were silent, and the vigil began. In one way it was a repet.i.tion of the previous night. I lost count of time, and had sudden desires to move, but managed to control them.

Certainly I did not sleep, and I fought successfully against the hypnotic influence which silence and darkness exert. Not a sound of movement came from Quarles, not a murmur from the world outside.

More than once I wanted to ask the professor whether he was all right, but did not do so.

It seemed that this utter silence had lasted for hours, when it was broken, not suddenly, but gradually. It was not a sound so much as a movement which broke it. Some one or something was near us. At first it did not seem to be in the room, but as if it were trying to get in. I could not tell where it was, but for a time it was outside, and then just as certainly I knew that it was in.

I cannot say positively that I heard a footfall on the carpet, but I think I did, and then came an unmistakable sound; the swish of the bed hangings suddenly drawn back.

”Quarles!”

Whether I shouted his name or whispered it, I do not know, but the next moment a ray from the electric torch cut the darkness like a long sword.

There was a low, almost inarticulate cry, then a light thud upon the floor--so light it might have been some clothes falling from the bed.

”Don't move, Wigan!” Quarles said, and a second afterwards he fired--downwards it must have been, although he had warned me to keep still, in case he should hit me.

There was an unearthly yell, and something rushed past my feet--a man on all fours, a little man, a--

”The gla.s.s, Wigan! Quick!”

I sprang up. For just an instant I saw my own reflection, then it was gone; instead, I was looking into a luminous mist out of which there suddenly flashed a face looking into mine.

I saw it quite clearly, and then it went as quickly as it had come. It appeared to have been jerked away.

”Look!”

Quarles was behind me, and in the gla.s.s, almost as I had seen them last night, were the shadows, only now they struggled and twisted first; it was afterwards that one lay still across the bed.

”An ape, Wigan!” Quarles said excitedly. ”An ape, trained to imitate, and now--did some one look through the gla.s.s?”

”Yes.”

”Was it Dr. Randall?”

Directly he asked the question I knew that it was the doctor's face which had been there.

”The subtle personality, Wigan.”

”When did you guess?”

”I didn't guess--I didn't think it possible. Bates' disbelief in the supernatural made me a little suspicious, but I didn't think it possible.

To-night--that ape--the whole plot--I could only think of Randall. There was no one else.”

We left the house at once, both of us in an excited state.

The constable I had on special duty soon had several others with him, and before dawn No. 5 Manleigh Road was raided.