Bat Wing

become charged with unrest. Of Madame de St?mer and Miss Beverley I saw nothing up to the time that I retired to dress. Having dressed I

London. Our host had suggested a messenger, but this, as well as the offer of a car, Harley had declined, saying that the exercise would aid refle

a sort of purplish shadow and the rest being mystically lighted as though viewed through a golden veil. To the who

he Colonel's account of how he had awakened in the act of entering this romantic

ght with him, I took it up, glancing at the title. It was "Negro Magic," and switching on the light,

as never been satisfactorily demonstrated. The cannibalistic rituals, human sacrifices, and obscene ceremonies resembling those of the Black Sabbath of the Middle Ages, reported to prevail in Haiti and other of the islands, and by some among the negroes of the Southern States of America, may be said to rest on dou

oast of Africa to denote witchcraft, sorcery, and fetishism in general. The etymology of Obi has been traced to a very antique source, stretching far back into Egyptian mythology. A serpent in the Egyptian language was called Ob or Aub. Obion is still the Egyptian name for a serpent. Moses, in the name of God,

d pursuing my reading I made a discovery which liter

articulars in support of a theory to show that whereas snakes and scorpions have always been recognized as sacred by

f an Obeah man are closely paralleled in the cases of men and anim

these simple paragraphs, cast into the utmost disorder. I thought of the Colonel's covert references to a neighbour whom he feared, of his guarded statemen

der Arms, with his bemused expression and his magnificen

first importance had fallen into my possession; so that when, presently, as I walked impa

ley! I have learned a m

eyes struck me. I recognized that in him, too, intense excitement was pent up. Fu

ontinued, "whilst I was waiting for you

d at me

had gone last night, Knox, and it was then that I m

who is quoted here, Colin Camber,

kno

! You

or Aylesbury of the County

me didn't you tell me?" he exclaimed. "It would have s

hat, have you bee

Innes from the village post-office after lunch to have the ca

l has three car

only two, there are times when I prefer to use them. I am still wondering w

xpected to attach any importance to the matter? You must rememb

have a liver at times; a distinct Indian liver. Excuse me, old man, but to tell you the tr

!" I

smiling, "and so, for many reasons, should I. But I have

n't quite underst

t Colonel Menendez is ignorant of the fact that his nearest neig

ng, of course,

one o

Colonel must know, of course, that C

account for these attacks upon his life rests on the premise that agents of these Obeah people are established in England and America.

he reside so

alled the Guest House. You can see it from part of the

house on th

Knox? That Menendez suspects this man is beyond d

o associate practical sorcery and assassinatio

ttedly a student of

pared to believe. But having had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Co

air of triumph, for Paul Harley

ystematically at work racing about the county in quest of information you would appear

umour, and now the cause of

he continued, "interviewing an impossible countr

ighted me. It was refreshing to know that the

intendent East had spoken to him from Scotland Yard that he ceased to treat me as a suspect. But his new attitude was almost more provoking than the old one. He adopted the manner of a

suddenly quite restored, and taking out

he said, "and you can sit there a

han any man I had ever known, had just finished tying his bow

realize that without you I should have been lost, Knox.

uties? What

ds, I must ask you to tear yourself away from Miss Val Beverley for an hour in

bt if he would

I. In the circumstances it is most importan

my best. But you don't seriously think,

from the chair upon which the man

remember that I spoke, recently,

u d

if any, between the narrative of Colonel Menendez, the bat wing nailed to the door of the house, and Mr. Colin Camber, I