Delphi Complete Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Illustrated) (746 page)

“Did I, marm? No, only two, I think. I don’t think I said anything of a third. Your ship’s out there, depend upon it, away out in the Atlantic, and you’ll hear of it time enough, for the weather is breaking. Now don’t you fret, marm, and wait quiet, and you’ll find a real blue Cornish sky to-morrow.”

The old seaman was right in his surmise, for the next day broke calm and bright, with only a low dwindling cloud in the west to mark the last trailing wreaths of the storm-wrack. But still there came no word from the sea, and no sign of the ship. Three more weary days had passed, the weariest that I have ever spent, when there came a seafaring man to the hotel with a letter. I gave a shout of joy. It was from the captain of the
Eastern Star
. As I read the first lines of it I whisked my hand over it, but she laid her own upon it and drew it away. “I have seen it,” said she, in a cold, quiet voice. “I may as well see the rest, too.”

“Dear Sir,” said the letter,

“Mr. Vansittart is down with the smallpox, and we are blown so far on our course that we don’t know what to do, he being off his head and unfit to tell us. By dead reckoning we are but three hundred miles from Funchal, so I take it that it is best that we should push on there, get Mr. V. into hospital, and wait in the Bay until you come. There’s a sailing-ship due from Falmouth to Funchal in a few days’ time, as I understand. This goes by the brig
Marian
of Falmouth, and five pounds is due to the master,

“Yours respectfully,

“Jno. Hines.”

She was a wonderful woman that, only a chit of a girl fresh from school, but as quiet and strong as a man. She said nothing — only pressed her lips together tight, and put on her bonnet.

“You are going out?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Can I be of use?”

“No; I am going to the doctor’s.”

“To the doctor’s?”

“Yes. To learn how to nurse a small-pox case.”

She was busy at that all the evening, and next morning we were off with a fine ten-knot breeze in the barque
Rose of Sharon
for Madeira. For five days we made good time, and were no great way from the island; but on the sixth there fell a calm, and we lay without motion on a sea of oil, heaving slowly, but making not a foot of way.

At ten o’clock that night Emily Vansittart and I stood leaning on the starboard railing of the poop, with a full moon shining at our backs, and casting a black shadow of the barque, and of our own two heads, upon the shining water. From the shadow a broadening path of moonshine stretched away to the lonely skyline, flickering and shimmering in the gentle heave of the swell. We were talking with bent heads, chatting of the calm, of the chances of wind, of the look of the sky, when there came a sudden plop, like a rising salmon, and there, in the clear light, John Vansittart sprang out of the water and looked up at us.

I never saw anything clearer in my life than I saw that man. The moon shone full upon him, and he was but three oars’ length away. His face was more puffed than when I had seen him last, mottled here and there with dark scabs, his mouth and eyes open as one who is struck with some overpowering surprise. He had some white stuff streaming from his shoulders, and one hand was raised to his ear, the other crooked across his breast. I saw him leap from the water into the air, and in the dead calm the waves of his coming lapped up against the sides of the vessel. Then his figure sank back into the water again, and I heard a rending, crackling sound like a bundle of brushwood snapping in the fire on a frosty night. There were no signs of him when I looked again, but a swift swirl and eddy on the still sea still marked the spot where he had been. How long I stood there, tingling to my finger-tips, holding up an unconscious woman with one hand, clutching at the rail of the vessel with the other, was more than I could afterwards tell. I had been noted as a man of slow and unresponsive emotions, but this time at least I was shaken to the core. Once and twice I struck my foot upon the deck to be certain that I was indeed the master of my own senses, and that this was not some mad prank of an unruly brain. As I stood, still marvelling, the woman shivered, opened her eyes, gasped, and then standing erect with her hands upon the rail, looked out over the moonlit sea with a face which had aged ten years in a summer night.

“You saw his vision?” she murmured.

“I saw something.”

“It was he! It was John! He is dead!”

I muttered some lame words of doubt.

“Doubtless he died at this hour,” she whispered. “In hospital at Madeira. I have read of such things. His thoughts were with me. His vision came to me. Oh, my John, my dear, dear, lost John!”

She broke out suddenly into a storm of weeping, and I led her down into her cabin, where I left her with her sorrow. That night a brisk breeze blew up from the east, and in the evening of the next day we passed the two islets of Los Desertos, and dropped anchor at sundown in the Bay of Funchal. The
Eastern Star
lay no great distance from us, with the quarantine flag flying from her main, and her Jack half-way up her peak.

“You see,” said Mrs. Vansittart quickly. She was dry-eyed now, for she had known how it would be.

That night we received permission from the authorities to move on board the
Eastern Star
. The captain, Hines, was waiting upon deck with confusion and grief contending upon his bluff face as he sought for words with which to break this heavy tidings, but she took the story from his lips.

“I know that my husband is dead,” she said. “He died yesterday night, about ten o’clock, in hospital at Madeira, did he not?”

The seaman stared aghast. “No, marm, he died eight days ago at sea, and we had to bury him out there, for we lay in a belt of calm, and could not say when we might make the land.”

Well, those are the main facts about the death of John Vansittart, and his appearance to his wife somewhere about lat. 35 N. and long. 15 W. A clearer case of a wraith has seldom been made out, and since then it has been told as such, and put into print as such, and endorsed by a learned society as such, and so floated off with many others to support the recent theory of telepathy. For myself, I hold telepathy to be proved, but I would snatch this one case from amid the evidence, and say that I do not think that it was the wraith of John Vansittart, but John Vansittart himself whom we saw that night leaping into the moonlight out of the depths of the Atlantic. It has ever been my belief that some strange chance — one of those chances which seem so improbable and yet so constantly occur — had becalmed us over the very spot where the man had been buried a week before. For the rest, the surgeon tells me that the leaden weight was not too firmly fixed, and that seven days bring about changes which fetch a body to the surface. Coming from the depth to which the weight would have sunk it, he explains that it might well attain such a velocity as to carry it clear of the water. Such is my own explanation of the matter, and if you ask me what then became of the body, I must recall to you that snapping, crackling sound, with the swirl in the water. The shark is a surface feeder and is plentiful in those parts.

THE LIF
T

Flight-Commander Stangate should have been happy. He had come safely through the war without a hurt, and with a good name in the most heroic of services. He had only just turned thirty, and a great career seemed to lie ahead of him. Above all, beautiful Mary MacLean was walking by his side, and he had her promise that she was there for life. What could a young man ask for more? And yet there was a heavy load upon his heart.

He could not explain it himself, and endeavoured to reason himself out of it. There was the blue sky above him, the blue sea in front, the beautiful gardens with their throngs of happy pleasure-seekers around. Above all, there was that sweet face turned upon him with questioning concern. Why could he not raise himself to so joyful an environment? He made effort after effort, but they were not convincing enough to deceive the quick instinct of a loving woman.

“What is it, Tom?” she asked anxiously. “I can see that something is clouding you. Do tell me if I can help you in any way.”

He laughed in shame-faced fashion.

“It is such a sin to spoil our little outing,” he said. “I could kick myself round these gardens when I think of it. Don’t worry, my darling, for I know the cloud will roll off. I suppose I am a creature of nerves, though I should have got past that by now. The Flying Service is supposed either to break you or to warrant you for life.”

“It is nothing definite, then?”

“No, it is nothing definite. That’s the worst of it. You could fight it more easily if it was. It’s just a dead, heavy depression here in my chest and across my forehead. But do forgive me, dear girl! What a brute I am to shadow you like this.”

“But I love to share even the smallest trouble.”

“Well, it’s gone — vamosed — vanished. We will talk about it no more.”

She gave him a swift, penetrating glance.

“No, no, Tom; your brow shows, as well as feels. Tell me, dear, have you often felt like this? You really look very ill. Sit here, dear, in the shade and tell me of it.”

They sat together in the shadow of the great latticed Tower which reared itself six hundred feet high beside them.

“I have an absurd faculty,” said he; “I don’t know that I have ever mentioned it to any one before. But when imminent danger is threatening me I get these strange forebodings. Of course it is absurd to-day in these peaceful surroundings. It only shows how queerly these things work. But it is the first time that it has deceived me.”

“When had you it before?”

“When I was a lad it seized me one morning. I was nearly drowned that afternoon. I had it when the burglar came to Morton Hall and I got a bullet through my coat. Then twice in the war when I was overmatched and escaped by a miracle, I had this strange feeling before ever I climbed into my machine. Then it lifts quite suddenly, like a mist in the sunshine. Why, it is lifting now. Look at me! Can’t you see that it is so?”

She could indeed. He had turned in a minute from a haggard man to a laughing boy. She found herself laughing in sympathy. A rush of high spirits and energy had swept away his strange foreboding and filled his whole soul with the vivid, dancing joy of youth.

“Thank goodness!” he cried. “I think it is your dear eyes that have done it. I could not stand that wistful look in them. What a silly, foolish nightmare it all has been! There’s an end for ever in my belief in presentiments. Now, dear girl, we have just time for one good turn before luncheon. After that the gardens get so crowded that it is hopeless to do anything. Shall we have a side show, or the great wheel, or the flying boat, or what?”

“What about the Tower?” she asked, glancing upwards. “Surely that glorious air and the view from the top would drive the last wisps of cloud out of your mind.”

He looked at his watch.

“Well, it’s past twelve, but I suppose we could do it all in an hour. But it doesn’t seem to be working. What about it, conductor?”

The man shook his head and pointed to a little knot of people who were assembled at the entrance.

“They’ve all been waiting, sir. It’s hung up, but the gear is being overhauled, and I expect the signal every minute. If you join the others I promise it won’t be long.”

They had hardly reached the group when the steel face of the lift rolled aside — a sign that there was hope in the future. The motley crowd drifted through the opening and waited expectantly upon the wooden platform. They were not numerous, for the gardens are not crowded until the afternoon, but they were fair samples of the kindly, good-humoured north-country folk who take their annual holiday at Northam. Their faces were all upturned now, and they were watching with keen interest a man who was descending the steel framework. It seemed a dangerous, precarious business, but he came as swiftly as an ordinary mortal upon a staircase.

“My word!” said the conductor, glancing up. “Jim has got a move on this morning.”

“Who is he?” asked Commander Stangate.

“That’s Jim Barnes, sir, the best workman that ever went on a scaffold. He fair lives up there. Every bolt and rivet are under his care. He’s a wonder, is Jim.”

“But don’t argue religion with him,” said one of the group.

The attendant laughed.

“Ah, you know him, then,” said he. “No, don’t argue religion with him.”

“Why not?” asked the officer.

“Well, he takes it very hard, he does. He’s the shining light of his sect.”

“It ain’t hard to be that,” said the knowing one. “I’ve heard there are only six folk in the fold. He’s one of those who picture heaven as the exact size of their own back street conventicle and every one else left outside it.”

“Better not tell him so while he’s got that hammer in his hand,” said the conductor, in a hurried whisper. “Hallo, Jim, how goes it this morning?”

The man slid swiftly down the last thirty feet, and then balanced himself on a cross-bar while he looked at the little group in the lift. As he stood there, clad in a leather suit, with his pliers and other tools dangling from his brown belt, he was a figure to please the eye of an artist. The man was very tall and gaunt, with great straggling limbs and every appearance of giant strength. His face was a remarkable one, noble and yet sinister, with dark eyes and hair, a prominent hooked nose, and a beard which flowed over his chest. He steadied himself with one knotted hand, while the other held a steel hammer dangling by his knee.

“It’s all ready aloft,” said he. “I’ll go up with you if I may.” He sprang down from his perch and joined the others in the lift.

“I suppose you are always watching it,” said the young lady.

“That is what I am engaged for, miss. From morning to night, and often from night to morning, I am up here. There are times when I feel as if I were not a man at all, but a fowl of the air. They fly round me, the creatures, as I lie out on the girders, and they cry to me until I find myself crying back to the poor soulless things.”

“It’s a great charge,” said the Commander, glancing up at the wonderful tracery of steel outlined against the deep blue sky.

“Aye, sir, and there is not a nut nor a screw that is riot in my keeping. Here’s my hammer to ring them true and my spanner to wrench them tight. As the Lord over the earth, so am I — even I — over the Tower, with power of life and power of death, aye of death and of life.”

The hydraulic machinery had begun to work and the lift very slowly ascended. As it mounted, the glorious panorama of the coast and bay gradually unfolded itself. So engrossing was the view that the passengers hardly noticed it when the platform stopped abruptly between stages at the five hundred foot level. Barnes, the workman, muttered that something must be amiss, and springing like a cat across the gap which separated them from the trellis-work of metal he clambered out of sight. The motley little party, suspended in mid-air, lost something of their British shyness under such unwonted conditions and began to compare notes with each other. One couple, who addressed each other as Dolly and Billy, announced to the company that they were the particular stars of the Hippodrome bill, and kept their neighbours tittering with their rather obvious wit. A buxom mother, her precocious son, and two married couples upon holiday formed an appreciative audience.

“You’d like to be a sailor, would you?” said Billy the comedian, in answer to some remark of the boy. “Look ‘ere, my nipper, you’ll end up as a blooming corpse if you ain’t careful. See ‘im standin’ at the edge. At this hour of the morning I can’t bear to watch it.”

“What’s the hour got to do with it?” asked a stout commercial traveller.

“My nerves are worth nothin’ before midday. Why, lookin’ down there, and seem’ those folks like dots, puts me all in a twitter. My family is all alike in the mornin’.”

“I expect,” said Dolly, a high-coloured young woman, “that they’re all alike the evening before.”

There was a general laugh, which was led by the comedian.

“You got it across that time, Dolly. It’s K.O. for Battling Billy — still senseless when last heard of. If my family is laughed at I’ll leave the room.”

“It’s about time we did,” said the commercial traveller, who was a red-faced, choleric person. “It’s a disgrace the way they hold us up. I’ll write to the company.”

“Where’s the bell-push?” said Billy. “I’m goin’ to ring.”

“What for — the waiter?” asked the lady.

“For the conductor, the chauffeur, whoever it is that drives the old bus up and down. Have they run out of petrol, or broke the mainspring, or what?”

“We have a fine view, anyhow,” said the Commander.

“Well, I’ve had that,” remarked Billy. “I’m done with it, and I’m for getting on.”

“I’m getting nervous,” cried the stout mother. “I do hope there is nothing wrong with the lift.”

“I say, hold on to the slack of my coat, Dolly. I’m going to look over and chance it. Oh, Lord, it makes me sick and giddy! There’s a horse down under, and it ain’t bigger than a mouse. I don’t see any one lookin’ after us. Where’s old Isaiah the prophet who came up with us?”

“He shinned out of it mighty quick when he thought trouble was coming.”

“Look here,” said Dolly, looking very perturbed, “this is a nice thing, I don’t think. Here we are five hundred foot up, and stuck for the day as like as not. I’m due for the
matinée
at the Hippodrome. I’m sorry for the company if they don’t get me down in time for that. I’m billed all over the town for a new song.”

“A new one! What’s that, Dolly?”

“A real pot o’ ginger, I tell you. It’s called ‘On the Road to Ascot.’ I’ve got a hat four foot across to sing it in.”

“Come on, Dolly, let’s have a rehearsal while we wait.”

“No, no; the young lady here wouldn’t understand.”

“I’d be very glad to hear it,” cried Mary MacLean. “Please don’t let me prevent you.”

“The words were written to the hat. I couldn’t sing the verses without the hat. But there’s a nailin’ good chorus to it:

“‘If you want a little mascot
When you’re on the way to Ascot,
Try the lady with the cartwheel hat.’”

She had a tuneful voice and a sense of rhythm which set every one nodding. “Try it now all together,” she cried; and the strange little haphazard company sang it with all their lungs.

“I say,” said Billy, “that ought to wake somebody up. What? Let’s try a shout all together.”

It was a fine effort, but there was no response. It was clear that the management down below was quite ignorant or impotent. No sound came back to them.

The passengers became alarmed. The commercial traveller was rather less rubicund. Billy still tried to joke, but his efforts were not well received. The officer in his blue uniform at once took his place as rightful leader in a crisis. They all looked to him and appealed to him.

“What would you advise, sir? You don’t think there’s any danger of it coming down, do you?”

“Not the least. But it’s awkward to be stuck here all the same. I think I could jump across on to that girder. Then perhaps I could see what is wrong.”

“No, no, Tom; for goodness’ sake, don’t leave us!”

“Some people have a nerve,” said Billy. “Fancy jumping across a five-hundred-foot drop!”

“I dare say the gentleman did worse things in the war.”