Bat Wing

ad been related to us. Harley, who had a friend attached to the Spanish Embassy, had succeeded in getting in touch with him at his chambers, and had

ct and powerful administrative qualities; but allied to this they had all possessed traits of cruelty and debauchery which at one time had made the name of Menendez a by-word in the West Indies. That there were many people in that part of the world who would gladly have

ong silence, "there is one possibil

ility is tha

tted in his youth, and beyond doubt he has been guilty of many

faded somewhat as the Colonel's story proceeded. I do

y possible that such an obsession exists, and that som

odes in the earlier life of Menendez is employ

act

case none the le

even if the Colonel is not quite sane, at the

the arm of his chair where he had pl

uched a work which lay open on the other arm of his chair-"these are natives of tropical America, therefore the presence of a living vampir

art of a specimen from

utside the Museums. To follow this bat wing business further: there was one very curious point in the Colonel's narra

ded r

f a lingering sickness. Now this lingering sickness might have been an?mia, and an?mia may

y!" I exclaimed, "wh

le girl in some district of tropical America falling into such a decline, from which she was only rescued in the nick of time by the discovery that one of these V

e mosquito curtains?" I

ligence, used to work its way up under the edge of the netting. This disturbance of the curtains was noticed

"such a visitation wou

tic in the case of the native woman, since her symptoms at least simulated those which would result from the visits of a Vampire Bat, although of course they may have been due to a slow

are wondering why the lingeri

aculous recovery from the fever which attacked him after his visit to the Black Belt? This would seem to point t

the dagger a

would a

the man have committed to call down upon his head

shoulders in a whimsical

han the time of Menendez's last return to Cuba. On that

n exclamati

is too utterly fantastic. I begin to believ

down at the w

t of our visit is to make the acquaintance of the Co

enough. I am looking forward

lid cousin," added

mpanion, Mi

butler, and the Colonel himself, whose acq

ng is wildly b

erstep the border become preposterous in the eyes of those who have never done so. This is not because the unusual is necessarily the untrue, but because writers of fict

inted to the doorway comm

eated the character of C. Auguste Dupin. The doings of this amateur investigator were chronicled by an admirer, you may remember,

rom Dupin. Dupin was always successful. But my argument is this-you complain that the life of Colonel Don Juan Sarmiento Menendez, on his own showing, has been at least as romantic as his name. I

grudgingly; "but think of I

land. Or one may embark at Liverpool and disembark in the Spanish Main. Why, then, may not one embark in the West Indies and disembark at Liverpool? This granted, you will also grant that from Liverpool to Surrey is a feasible journey. Why, then, should you exclaim, 'but Voodoo in the Surrey Hills!' You would be surprised to meet an Esquimaux in the Strand, bu

aching over to a side-table r

Chancery Lane. It is impossible. Yet," he raised his glass, "

while, whilst I con

a luncheon hamper, a jar of good ale, and the peculiar peace of a Norfolk river-these joys I willingly curtail in favour of the u