CHAPTER XXIV
Henry and Agnes were left alone in the Room of the Caryatides.
The person who had written the description of the palace--probably apoor author or artist--had correctly pointed out the defects of themantel-piece. Bad taste, exhibiting itself on the most costly andsplendid scale, was visible in every part of the work. It wasnevertheless greatly admired by ignorant travellers of all classes;partly on account of its imposing size, and partly on account of thenumber of variously-coloured marbles which the sculptor had contrivedto introduce into his design. Photographs of the mantel-piece wereexhibited in the public rooms, and found a ready sale among English andAmerican visitors to the hotel.
Henry led Agnes to the figure on the left, as they stood facing theempty fire-place. 'Shall I try the experiment,' he asked, 'or willyou?' She abruptly drew her arm away from him, and turned back to thedoor. 'I can't even look at it,' she said. 'That merciless marbleface frightens me!'
Henry put his hand on the forehead of the figure. 'What is there toalarm you, my dear, in this conventionally classical face?' he askedjestingly. Before he could press the head inwards, Agnes hurriedlyopened the door. 'Wait till I am out of the room!' she cried. 'Thebare idea of what you may find there horrifies me!' She looked backinto the room as she crossed the threshold. 'I won't leave youaltogether,' she said, 'I will wait outside.'
She closed the door. Left by himself, Henry lifted his hand once moreto the marble forehead of the figure.
For the second time, he was checked on the point of setting themachinery of the hiding-place in motion. On this occasion, theinterruption came from an outbreak of friendly voices in the corridor.A woman's voice exclaimed, 'Dearest Agnes, how glad I am to see youagain!' A man's voice followed, offering to introduce some friend to'Miss Lockwood.' A third voice (which Henry recognised as the voice ofthe manager of the hotel) became audible next, directing thehousekeeper to show the ladies and gentlemen the vacant apartments atthe other end of the corridor. 'If more accommodation is wanted,' themanager went on, 'I have a charming room to let here.' He opened thedoor as he spoke, and found himself face to face with Henry Westwick.
'This is indeed an agreeable surprise, sir!' said the managercheerfully. 'You are admiring our famous chimney-piece, I see. May Iask, Mr. Westwick, how you find yourself in the hotel, this time? Havethe supernatural influences affected your appetite again?'
'The supernatural influences have spared me, this time,' Henryanswered. 'Perhaps you may yet find that they have affected some othermember of the family.' He spoke gravely, resenting the familiar tonein which the manager had referred to his previous visit to the hotel.'Have you just returned?' he asked, by way of changing the topic.
'Just this minute, sir. I had the honour of travelling in the sametrain with friends of yours who have arrived at the hotel--Mr. and Mrs.Arthur Barville, and their travelling companions. Miss Lockwood iswith them, looking at the rooms. They will be here before long, ifthey find it convenient to have an extra room at their disposal.'
This announcement decided Henry on exploring the hiding-place, beforethe interruption occurred. It had crossed his mind, when Agnes lefthim, that he ought perhaps to have a witness, in the not very probableevent of some alarming discovery taking place. The too-familiarmanager, suspecting nothing, was there at his disposal. He turnedagain to the Caryan figure, maliciously resolving to make the managerhis witness.
'I am delighted to hear that our friends have arrived at last,' hesaid. 'Before I shake hands with them, let me ask you a question aboutthis queer work of art here. I see photographs of it downstairs. Arethey for sale?'
'Certainly, Mr. Westwick!'
'Do you think the chimney-piece is as solid as it looks?' Henryproceeded. 'When you came in, I was just wondering whether this figurehere had not accidentally got loosened from the wall behind it.' Helaid his hand on the marble forehead, for the third time. 'To my eye,it looks a little out of the perpendicular. I almost fancied I couldjog the head just now, when I touched it.' He pressed the head inwardsas he said those words.
A sound of jarring iron was instantly audible behind the wall. Thesolid hearthstone in front of the fire-place turned slowly at the feetof the two men, and disclosed a dark cavity below. At the same moment,the strange and sickening combination of odours, hitherto associatedwith the vaults of the old palace and with the bed-chamber beneath, nowfloated up from the open recess, and filled the room.
The manager started back. 'Good God, Mr. Westwick!' he exclaimed,'what does this mean?'
Remembering, not only what his brother Francis had felt in the roombeneath, but what the experience of Agnes had been on the previousnight, Henry was determined to be on his guard. 'I am as muchsurprised as you are,' was his only reply.
'Wait for me one moment, sir,' said the manager. 'I must stop theladies and gentlemen outside from coming in.'
He hurried away--not forgetting to close the door after him. Henryopened the window, and waited there breathing the purer air. Vagueapprehensions of the next discovery to come, filled his mind for thefirst time. He was doubly resolved, now, not to stir a step in theinvestigation without a witness.
The manager returned with a wax taper in his hand, which he lighted assoon as he entered the room.
'We need fear no interruption now,' he said. 'Be so kind, Mr.Westwick, as to hold the light. It is my business to find out whatthis extraordinary discovery means.'
Henry held the taper. Looking into the cavity, by the dim andflickering light, they both detected a dark object at the bottom of it.'I think I can reach the thing,' the manager remarked, 'if I lie down,and put my hand into the hole.'
He knelt on the floor--and hesitated. 'Might I ask you, sir, to giveme my gloves?' he said. 'They are in my hat, on the chair behind you.'
Henry gave him the gloves. 'I don't know what I may be going to takehold of,' the manager explained, smiling rather uneasily as he put onhis right glove.
He stretched himself at full length on the floor, and passed his rightarm into the cavity. 'I can't say exactly what I have got hold of,' hesaid. 'But I have got it.'
Half raising himself, he drew his hand out.
The next instant, he started to his feet with a shriek of terror. Ahuman head dropped from his nerveless grasp on the floor, and rolled toHenry's feet. It was the hideous head that Agnes had seen hoveringabove her, in the vision of the night!
The two men looked at each other, both struck speechless by the sameemotion of horror. The manager was the first to control himself. 'Seeto the door, for God's sake!' he said. 'Some of the people outside mayhave heard me.'
Henry moved mechanically to the door.
Even when he had his hand on the key, ready to turn it in the lock incase of necessity, he still looked back at the appalling object on thefloor. There was no possibility of identifying those decayed anddistorted features with any living creature whom he had seen--and, yet,he was conscious of feeling a vague and awful doubt which shook him tothe soul. The questions which had tortured the mind of Agnes, were nowhis questions too. He asked himself, 'In whose likeness might I haverecognised it before the decay set in? The likeness of Ferrari? or thelikeness of--?' He paused trembling, as Agnes had paused tremblingbefore him. Agnes! The name, of all women's names the dearest to him,was a terror to him now! What was he to say to her? What might be theconsequence if he trusted her with the terrible truth?
No footsteps approached the door; no voices were audible outside. Thetravellers were still occupied in the rooms at the eastern end of thecorridor.
In the brief interval that had passed, the manager had sufficientlyrecovered himself to be able to think once more of the first andforemost interests of his life--the interests of the hotel. Heapproached Henry anxiously.
'If this frightful discovery becomes known,' he said, 'the closing ofthe hotel and the ruin of the Company will be the inevitable results.I feel sure that I can trust your discretion, sir, so far?'
'You can certainly trust me,' He
nry answered. 'But surely discretionhas its limits,' he added, 'after such a discovery as we have made?'
The manager understood that the duty which they owed to the community,as honest and law-abiding men, was the duty to which Henry nowreferred. 'I will at once find the means,' he said, 'of conveying theremains privately out of the house, and I will myself place them in thecare of the police authorities. Will you leave the room with me? or doyou not object to keep watch here, and help me when I return?'
While he was speaking, the voices of the travellers made themselvesheard again at the end of the corridor. Henry instantly consented towait in the room. He shrank from facing the inevitable meeting withAgnes if he showed himself in the corridor at that moment.
The manager hastened his departure, in the hope of escaping notice. Hewas discovered by his guests before he could reach the head of thestairs. Henry heard the voices plainly as he turned the key. Whilethe terrible drama of discovery was in progress on one side of thedoor, trivial questions about the amusements of Venice, and facetiousdiscussions on the relative merits of French and Italian cookery, wereproceeding on the other. Little by little, the sound of the talkinggrew fainter. The visitors, having arranged their plans of amusementfor the day, were on their way out of the hotel. In a minute or two,there was silence once more.
Henry turned to the window, thinking to relieve his mind by looking atthe bright view over the canal. He soon grew wearied of the familiarscene. The morbid fascination which seems to be exercised by allhorrible sights, drew him back again to the ghastly object on the floor.
Dream or reality, how had Agnes survived the sight of it? As thequestion passed through his mind, he noticed for the first timesomething lying on the floor near the head. Looking closer, heperceived a thin little plate of gold, with three false teeth attachedto it, which had apparently dropped out (loosened by the shock) whenthe manager let the head fall on the floor.
The importance of this discovery, and the necessity of not too readilycommunicating it to others, instantly struck Henry. Here surely was achance--if any chance remained--of identifying the shocking relic ofhumanity which lay before him, the dumb witness of a crime! Acting onthis idea, he took possession of the teeth, purposing to use them as alast means of inquiry when other attempts at investigation had beentried and had failed.
He went back again to the window: the solitude of the room began toweigh on his spirits. As he looked out again at the view, there was asoft knock at the door. He hastened to open it--and checked himself inthe act. A doubt occurred to him. Was it the manager who had knocked?He called out, 'Who is there?'
The voice of Agnes answered him. 'Have you anything to tell me, Henry?'
He was hardly able to reply. 'Not just now,' he said, confusedly.'Forgive me if I don't open the door. I will speak to you a littlelater.'
The sweet voice made itself heard again, pleading with him piteously.'Don't leave me alone, Henry! I can't go back to the happy peopledownstairs.'
How could he resist that appeal? He heard her sigh--he heard therustling of her dress as she moved away in despair. The very thingthat he had shrunk from doing but a few minutes since was the thingthat he did now! He joined Agnes in the corridor. She turned as sheheard him, and pointed, trembling, in the direction of the closed room.'Is it so terrible as that?' she asked faintly.
He put his arm round her to support her. A thought came to him as helooked at her, waiting in doubt and fear for his reply. 'You shallknow what I have discovered,' he said, 'if you will first put on yourhat and cloak, and come out with me.'
She was naturally surprised. 'Can you tell me your object in goingout?' she asked.
He owned what his object was unreservedly. 'I want, before allthings,' he said, 'to satisfy your mind and mine, on the subject ofMontbarry's death. I am going to take you to the doctor who attendedhim in his illness, and to the consul who followed him to the grave.'
Her eyes rested on Henry gratefully. 'Oh, how well you understand me!'she said. The manager joined them at the same moment, on his way upthe stairs. Henry gave him the key of the room, and then called to theservants in the hall to have a gondola ready at the steps. 'Are youleaving the hotel?' the manager asked. 'In search of evidence,' Henrywhispered, pointing to the key. 'If the authorities want me, I shallbe back in an hour.'