The Riddle of the Mysterious Light

  CHAPTER VI

  THE GHOST IN THE CHURCH BELFRY

  If you have ever journeyed down into Essex by way of the Great Easternfrom Liverpool Street, you may remember that just before you come toValehampton--six or seven miles before, in fact--the train stops at asmall and exceedingly picturesque station bearing the name of WillowbyOld Church, behind which the village of the same name lies in a sort ofdepression, a picture of peaceful beauty.

  But if you do not recall it, it doesn't matter; the point is that it isthere, and that at a period of about two and a half hours after Cleekand Mr. Narkom had left His Grace of Essex there rushed up to theoutlying borders of that village a panting and dust-smothered bluelimousine in which sat four men--two on the front seat and two on theback. And the remarkable fact about it was that the two "back seaters"looked so nearly the image of the two "front seaters" that if you hadn'theard all four of them talking you might have fancied that at least onepair was seated in front of a looking-glass.

  They differed not a particle in anything, from sleek, well-pomaded hairto bristly, close-clipped moustache, or from self-evident "dickey" andgreasy necktie to clumping, thick-soled, well-polished cow-hide bootswith metal "protectors" on the heels--policemen's boots by all thesigns.

  "Safe enough here, sir, I reckon," came through the speaking tube fromthe chauffeur as the car halted in the shadow of some trees. "No one insight, and the station not more than a hundred yards away--get to it intwo minutes without half trying."

  The pair on the back seat pulled farther back from observation and thepair on the front one rose and got out. The last to do so spoke a fewsentences to the chauffeur.

  "The train won't be in for another half-hour yet," he said. "You oughtto be in Valehampton before that. Keep out of sight as much as possible.You won't have much difficulty in finding out where we put up, and whenyou do, keep as close to the neighbourhood as you can with safety.Meanwhile, impress it upon Hammond and Petrie not to pull down thecurtains, but to keep out of sight, if they have to lie on the floor todo it. Come along, Mr. Narkom. Step lively!"

  "All right, sir," said Lennard; then the limousine flashed away, bearingthe original Hammond and Petrie in one direction while the counterfeitpresentments of them walked off in the other.

  In half an hour the down train from London arrived. They boarded it, andwent, with their brier-woods and their shag, into a third-class smokingcompartment, and were off a minute or so afterward.

  The sun had not yet dropped wholly out of sight behind the west wing ofEssex Castle when they turned out at Valehampton, and they had only gotas far as the door where the ticket collector stood when a voice behindthem said abruptly: "Mr. Headland--Mr. Markham. One moment, please."Facing round they saw a pleasant-faced man on the right side of fortycoming into the waiting-room from the platform, and advancing towardthem. His clothing was undeniably town-made, and selected with excellenttaste. He wore tan boots and leather puttees, and carried a hunting cropin his hand. He came up and introduced himself at once as James Overton,land-steward of the Duke of Essex.

  "Hallo! The duke got back a'ready, has he?" asked Cleek, when he heardthis.

  "Oh, no. I do not expect him for quite another hour at the veryearliest. He will come down as he went up--in the motor. And he isalways a little uneasy about travelling fast. It was at CaptainWeatherley's suggestion that I telephoned him at the Carlton to inquireif there was any likelihood of somebody from Scotland Yard being sentdown before morning. That is how I came to know--and to be here. HisGrace informed me that you had already started. The local time-tabletold me the rest."

  "Good business! But I say, Mr. Overton, what put it into CaptainWhat's-his-name's head to have you telephone the duke and inquire?Nervous gent, is he?"

  "No; not in the least. He suddenly remembered that the only inn in thevillage closed its doors this morning. Last night's affair finished thelandlady. She cleared out, bag and baggage, at noon. Couldn't be hiredto stop another hour. The Captain thought I ought to telephone to HisGrace and make the inquiry, because if anybody _should_ be coming downto-night something ought to be done to find lodgings beforehand."

  "I see. Nice and thoughtful of the gent, Markham--eh, what? Much obligedto you for the trouble, I'm sure. Did you manage to find us any, then?"

  "Yes, Mr.--er--Headland, will it be? Thanks.... I had some difficulty indoing so for a time; but finally Carstairs came to the rescue. Carstairsis His Grace's butler. He is engaged to a young woman living on theother side of the village, and her people have eased matters up a bit byplacing a room in their cottage at the disposal of Mr. Markham andyourself. Shall I show you to it? I regret that I was thoughtless andneglected to speak for a conveyance."

  "Oh, that doesn't matter," replied Cleek, knocking out his pipe againsthis heel. "My mate and me, we're used to hoofing it; and, besides,it'll be a change to stretch our legs after being cooped up for nighthree hours in the train. Wot price Shanks's mare for a bit, Jim?Agreeable?"

  "Hur!" grunted Mr. Narkom, nodding his head in the affirmative withouttroubling to remove his pipe from his lips.

  "Right you are, then--best foot forward. Mustn't mind Markham's littleways, Mr. Overton. Some folks get the idea that because he doesn't talkmuch the beggar's sullen. But that ain't it at all. Fact is, he's a bithard of hearing. Shell in the South African War. Busted ear-drum."

  "What, _deaf_?"

  "Yessir. Deaf as a blooming hitching post in the left ear, and the rightone not up to no great figger, either. A thundering good man though, oneof the best."

  "God bless my soul! Deaf, and yet----"

  Here Mr. Overton's voice dropped off suddenly, and he did the rest ofhis thinking in silence. The thoughts themselves were anything butcomplimentary to a police force which retained deaf men on its activelist and could send out nothing better than this precious pair ofilliterates to investigate an important case.

  "The duke does some funny things sometimes," he said to himself as hewalked over to the spot where he had tethered his horse and began tounfasten it. "And that's what Scotland Yard takes the rate-payers' goodmoney to support, eh? Good lord!"

  He rejoined the two undesirables a moment later, and with the horse'sbridle over his arm, walked on beside Cleek while Mr. Markham droppedback a few paces into the rear and clumped along in heavy-footed,listless style.

  Mr. Overton, too, was silent for a time--as if the apparent inefficiencyof these two upon whose perspicacity the duke was relying rather weighedupon his spirits, and he saw little more hope of getting to the bottomof this perplexing affair than if it had been left to the localconstabulary. Cleek was sorry for that. He could see that the man was ofa hearty, jovial disposition, and likely to be a rather pleasantcompanion for a long walk. He therefore set out to put him more at hisease and to start the conversational ball rolling.

  "Fine country this, Mr. Overton," he said, looking round over the widesweep of green land. "Reminds me of Australia, them trees and fields.Though I never was there; but I've seen the photographs. Brother's asailor on the P. and O.--fetched back heaps of 'em. Hello! Wot pricethat church spire away over there to the left? Will that be St.Saviour's?"

  "Yes."

  "Church where the goings on takes place, ain't it? The bell-ringing andthe like. Reckon I must have a look at that place some time to-morrow."

  "Not until to-morrow, Mr. Headland?"

  "Well, you see, I didn't expect that the box containing our magnifyingglasses and camera for taking photographs of fingerprints and things ofthat sort, you know, will arrive before then, and it's no use workingwithout your tools, is it? Superintendent said he'd ship it down to useither to-night or the first thing in the morning, and he's prettyprompt about such things."

  "So then, of course---- To-morrow, eh? I suppose you haven't formed anyopinion regarding the genesis of the case, Mr. Headland?"

  "The which, sir?"

  "The genesis, the start, the beginning, the cause."

  "Oh! I see. No, I haven't made up my m
ind so set that it ain't liable tobe changed. I never was one of them pig-headed sort that gets an ideaand then can't be shook off it. I've formed a sort of general notionregarding it, you know, but, as I say, nothing fixed."

  "I see. Would it be too much to ask what the 'general notion' is?"

  "Why, it'll be just what that dead chap--the one that was killed lastnight--called it: a case of hanky-panky. Somebody is engineering thebusiness. For a purpose, you know. Depreciating land values for the sakeof getting hold of that piece of property the cement company wants toget from the duke."

  Mr. Overton stopped short.

  "I hadn't thought of that!" he declared. And it was clear enough fromthe manner in which the blood drained out of his face, and then camerushing back again, that he never had.

  "Hadn't you?" said Cleek, with a slight swagger. "Lord, I did--the firstthing!"

  It was evident that this hitherto unthought-of explanation had aremarkable effect upon Mr. Overton.

  "It would be that Hebrew chap, the company promoter who was knightedlast New Year, Sir Julius Solinski," he said as he resumed the walk. "Itwould be that fellow who would be at the bottom of any scheme to acquirethe land; and the man has a country seat in the adjoining district. Yes,but the bells, Mr. Headland--the bells?"

  "Oh, that will be the doing of boys. Up to a lark, you know. A blackenedfishing-line carried over the branch of a tree--that sort of thing. Didit myself when I was a youngster. It's all tommyrot about it's being a'spirit,' you know. Drivel."

  "You think so?"

  "Why, cert'nly. Don't you?"

  "I did once," replied Overton, sinking his voice. "I changed my mindupon that score last night. I'd have stopped that chap, Davis, going tothe belfry if I had known in time. I didn't. I was over at Willowby OldChurch on business connected with the estate. I was kept later than Ihad expected, and didn't get back to Valehampton until after dark."

  His voice dropped off. He walked on a few steps in silence, his facecuriously grave, his eyes very large. Of a sudden he took a slightshivering fit--the last thing in the world one would have expected ofsuch a man--and then threw a nervous glance over his shoulder and lookedup at Cleek.

  "Mr. Headland," he said, gravely, "heretofore people have merely heardthings. Last night I _saw_!"

  "Saw? Saw what?"

  "I don't know. Perhaps I never shall. I can give it neither name nordescription. I only know that whatever it was it certainly was nothinghuman."

  "A ghost?"

  "It was a jolly good imitation of one then, if it wasn't. Up to thatminute I had been as certain as you are that human hands, and humanhands alone, were at the back of this diabolical business, and that thetalk of the bells being rung by spirits was the baldest rubbish in allthe world. To-day I don't know what to think! It wasn't a case ofnerves. I didn't imagine the thing. I'm not that kind of man. I _saw_it, Mr. Headland--saw it as plainly as I now see you."

  "I say, you know, you make my flesh crawl. How did it happen? Andwhere?"

  "In the road on the far side of St. Saviour's, at about half-past tenlast night," said Overton, with grave seriousness. "I was coming up overthe slope between Valehampton and Willowby Old Church, intending to turnoff at the crossroads and take the short cut to the Lodge, where I live.The moon was shining brightly and there was no air stirring. The treeswere as motionless as wooden things, and the road, after the longdrought, was baked like iron. Had any footstep fallen upon it I musthave heard it in that complete quiet. Had any living creature passed mein the road, that creature I must have seen. I saw and I heard nothing.

  "All of a sudden, just as I got to the top of the slope, I happened tolook up and catch sight of the flat top of the bell tower of St.Saviour's. I was a goodish bit away from it, but there was a break inthe roadside trees at that point and I could see it clearly. I shouldn'thave given it a second glance under other circumstances, for I am quiteused to the sight of it and, up to that moment, never had the slightestbelief in there being anything supernatural connected with it in anyway. But it so happened that a curious thing about it forced itself uponmy notice at that moment, so I stood still and looked at it fixedly. Thecurious thing was this: at the very moment when I first looked up andsaw the tower's top, the moon dipped out of sight behind a passingcloud. The place should, naturally, have been plunged into darkness;instead a curious blob of light still lay on the roof of the place, asif the moon still shone upon some circular silver thing that restedthere.

  "I could not make it out. There is no metal on the belfry's top. Likeall towers of the Norman type, it is simply a huge, truncated stonecylinder, roofed over with stones and pierced here and there withbowman's slits cut in the circular walls. But suddenly, to my immensesurprise, that curious light began to move; then, presently, it wentcircling round and round the tower's top at a terrific rate of speed.

  "'O-ho,' said I to myself, thinking, of course, that I had had the raregood fortune to stumble upon the spot at a moment when the personresponsible for the ringing of the bells was on the ground for somepurpose of his own. 'Well, I'll precious soon make short work of you, myfriend, I promise you that.' I had not spoken any louder than I amspeaking now, Mr. Headland, so it would have been utterly impossible forany one or anything on the tower's top to have heard me all thatdistance away. But I swear to you that in the very instant I spoke thosewords and made to cut across into the graveyard of St. Saviour's asudden gust of wind as furious as a tropical hurricane seized upon thetrees about me and whipped and twisted them into writhing cones ofgreen; a dozen unseen hands slapped and tore at me and flung me back;and the light on the belfry's top lurched out into space and camecareering toward me with a shrieking noise. I saw for a moment theoutlines of a frightful, bodiless, inhuman face, wrapped in streamingribbons of light, and then the thing rushed by me in the darkness,shapeless and screaming, and for the first time in my life I fainted."