The Gloved Hand

where I had seen Marjorie Vaughan. Before me, along this path, sped a shadow which I knew to be Godfrey, and I followed at top speed.

a short avenue of trees. At the other end, a stream of light poured from an open door, and against that

dfrey; and then we, too

to view, holding in its arms a white-robed woman. With a sort of nervous shock, I saw that the man was Swain, and the woman Marjo

he laid her gently on a couch, fell to his k

himself first, and who ste

dead?" h

ead impatiently,

persisted, bending closer

him one r

, hoarsely. "She has fain

ain above the still figure on the couch, and touched his fingers to the temples. What he

Swain," he said. "But w

y!" snarl

no one here? Surel

e words Swain had bur

"Oh, yes; he's here! Cal

e the table, his eyes gleaming with an almost fiendish excit

iver with sudden horror, I saw him catch at the table for support, and for an instan

ad in a white robe. His hands were gripping the chair-arms a

nd raised the head. And a cry o

he eyes suffused and starting from their sockets. And then, at a motion from Godfrey's

ad, let the head fall forward again. It turned me sick to see how low it sagged, h

pulse, we turned and looked at Swain. He was still on his kne

ion. "She came in and found the body. No wonder she screamed

fact that no one came, added, somehow, to the horror of the moment. Those

and another opposite opening into the hall. On the wall beside the inner door, he found an electric button, and he pushe

red into the hall beyond. The hall was dark and silent. With face decide

into this. Have your torch ready-and your pistol.

cautiously and yet rapidly the whole length of it, flashing his torch into every room. They were all luxuriously furnished, but were empty of human occupants. From the kitchen, which closed the hall at the rear, a flight of stone steps led d

ventured, mounted the stairs again to the kitche

s knees beside the couch; the girl had not stirred. Godfrey went to the side of the couch, and, disregarding

e'll have to try heroic measures. But there must

followed in no very happy frame of mind, for I confess that this midnight exploration of an unknown house, with

obably that of the master of the house. It consisted of bedroom, bath and dressing-room, but there was no one there.

uggestive somehow of the East-which, in the first moment, caught the breath from t

her end by a heavy drapery. Godfrey strode forward and swept the drapery aside. The

ell-being stole through me. I saw Godfrey standing motionless, transfixed, with one hand holding back the drapery, and his tor

to burn more clearly. It was like a dreamer's pulse, fluttering, pausing, leaping, in accord with his vision. And as I gazed at the sphere, I fancied I could see within it strange, elusive sha

o me, saw my attitude and s

growled in my ear. "Take y

until Godfrey pulled me around to face

re like that can hypnotise a man more quickly than anything else on earth,

," I said. "I should li

ve got something else to do. Besi

vic

s off the sphere," he said, and sw

nto its depths in an effort to see what lay there, it seemed to me that I had never seen blackness so black. As I stared into it, with straining

Rembrandt's-for, gradually, one detail after another emerged from the darkness, vague shadows took

ainst it. He was staring straight at the crystal, with unwavering and unwinking gaze, and sat as motionless as though carved in stone. The glow from the sphere picked out his profile with a line of light-I could see the high forehead, the

said Godfrey, no longer tak

te stillness of the room, and I looked at

hear you

clap of thunder. That i

n at the impa

t faking

looks like the real thing-but these fellows are mighty cle

e," I said, after

er side of the sphere. Don

below, but swelling hideously at the top, and as I stared at it, it seemed to me that it returned my stare with malignant eyes screened by a pair of white-rimmed glasses. Then, with a se

s a c

staring eyes fixed upon the sphere, i

did they see in the sphere? What was passing in that inscrutable brain?

its tentacles from the darkness: I felt them dragging at m

myself away, out of the entry, into the hall, to t

breath, Godfrey followed me, and I