The Uttermost Farthing / A Savant's Vendetta

timate friend of this lonely, self-contained man and he had made me not only his sole executor but his principal legatee. With the exception of a sum of money to en

tribute the specimens as I chose; but I knew that Challoner's unexpressed wish was that it sho

and remote. As the Yale latch of the massive door clicked behind me, I seemed to be, and in fact was, cut off from all the world. A mysterious, sepulchral stillness pervaded the place, and when

ton of the rachitic camel, nor that of the aurochs, nor those of the apes and jackals and porcupines in the smaller glass case; nor the skulls that grinned from the case at the end of the room. It was the long row of human skeletons, each erect

nded the plates in "Gray's Anatomy." I could have slept comfortably in the Hunterian Museum-other circumstances being favorable; and even the gigantic skeleton of Corporal O'Brian-which graces that collection-with that of his com

ght, each seemed to look out at me as I passed with a questioning expression in his shadow

ring. Number 1 bore the date 20th September, 1889, and Number 25 (the one with the red pedestal) was dated 13th May, 1909. I looked at this last one curiously; a massive figure with traces of grea

t them. This presented no difficulty. I found the rosettes that moved the catches and had the panel out in a twinkling. The cupboard was five feet high by four broad and had a well in the bottom covered by a lid, which I lifted and, to my amazement, found the cavity filled

sion that their contents had made on me; and yet a sort of fascination led me to take down the top one-labelled "Series B 5"-and raise the lid. But if those dreadful dolls' heads had struck me as uncanny when poor Challoner showed them to me, they now seemed positively appalling. Small as they were-and they were not as large as a woman's fist-they looked so life-like-or ra

nd the mop of gray-brown hair, so unhuman in color, and the bristling mustache that stood up like a cat's whiskers, gave it an aspect half animal, hal

nge document. At first I was unable to perceive the relevancy of the matter to the title, for it seemed to be a journal of Challoner's private life; but later I bega

ere were no comments, no exclamations; merely a formal recital of facts, exhaustive, literal and precise. I need not quote it, as it only repeated the story he had told me, but I will commence my extract at the point where he broke off. The style,

y than to those against the person. Nothing had been stolen, so nothing could be traced; and the clues were certainly very slight. It soon became evident to me that the authorities had given the

ion is possible. But there is an appropriate forfeit to be paid; and if the authorities failed to exact it, then the duty of its exaction devolved upon me. Moreover, a person who thus lig

p of hair that I had taken from the hand of my murdered wife. It is true that the police also had finger-marked plate and the remainder of the hair and had been unable to achieve anything by their means; but the value of finger-impressions for the purposes of identification is not yet appreciated outside scientific circles.[1] I fetched the teapot and salver from the drawer in which I had secured them and examined them afresh. The teapot had been held in

ive seems to have bee

lack and white. Now, variegated hairs are common enough in the lower animals which have a pattern on the fur. The tabby cat furnishes a familiar example. But in man the condition is infinitely rare; whence it was obvio

tructiveness. Just as a rat will gnaw his way through a Holbein panel, or shred up the Vatican Codex to make a nest, so the

with vermin-with th

ll. We induce him to come out. And when he has come out, we see to it that he doesn't go back. In

. That was

conceived a not unnatural horror of the house. Since then I had made shift with a charwoman. But I should want a housemaid and a cook, and if I a

s athlete, and even now I was strong and exceedingly active. But I must get into training and brush up my wrestling and boxing. Then I m

r of plaited horsehair, and over this fastened a covering of stout leather; and when I had fitted it with a wrist-strap it looked a really serviceable tool. Its purpose is obvious. It

known to my instructor, the famous pugilist, Melchizedeck Cohen (popularly known as 'Slimy' Cohen); I had given up an hour a day to studying the management of the concussor with the aid of a punching-ball; the alarms wer

nd for the book that I had been reading in the evening, and then I remembered that I had left it in the museum. Now that book had interested me deeply. It contained the only lucid description that I had met w

a gift from my wife. She had built it and the big laboratory soon after we were married and many a delightful hour we had spent in it together, arranging the new specimens in the cases. I did not allow her to work in the evil-smelling laboratory, but she had a collection of her own, of land and fresh-water shells (whic

hear someone moving about and could occasionally detect the chink of metal. I ran back to the museum-my felt-soled bedroom slippers made no sound-a

ver plate were laid on the table, just as they had been when my wife was murdered. I drew the museum door to-I could not shut it because of the noise the spring latch would have made-and slipped behind a Japanese screen that stood near the dining-room door. I had just taken my place when a stealthy footstep approached along the hall. It entered the room and then there was a faint clink of metal. I peeped caut

spoil that he had then had to abandon. It was quite possible, even likely, and at the thought I felt my cheeks flush and a strange, fierce pleasure, such as I had never felt before, swept into my consciousness. I could have laughed aloud, but I did not. Also, I could have knoc

ehind the screen. Then my friend returned with a fresh consignment; and as he was anxiously looking over the fresh pieces, I crept silently out at the other end of the screen, out of the open doorway and down the hall to the pantry. Here a lighted candle sho

it was better than his arithmetic, as I gathered from his attempts to compute the weight of the booty. Anon, he retired for another consignment, and once more I ca

oted that 'there seemed a bloomin' lot of 'em;' and the quality of his arithmetical feats and his verbal enrichments became, alike, increasingly lurid. I believe he would have gone on until daylight if I had not tried him too often with a Queen Anne teapot. It was that t

one to? Hay? I put that there teapot down inside that there hontry-d

o knock him down. That was undoubtedly the proper course. But I could not bring myself to do it. A spirit of wild mischief possessed me; a strange, unnatural buoyancy and fierce playfu

e back presently, and, by the glimmer of light from the open door, I could see that he had the teapot and the 'hontry.' Now some previous tenant had fitted the dining-room door with two exte

d me in terms which it would be inadequate to describe as rude. Then I silently shot the bottom bolt and noisily drew ba

being unobstructed by furniture, I got there first and shot the top bolt. He wrenched frantically at the handle and addressed me with strange and unseemly epithets. I repeated the manoeuvre o

stened, and hearing no sound, bethought me of the open door of the museum. Probably he had gone there to look for a way out. This would

nd drew my own conclusions as to what he meant to do with his right. We stood for some seconds facing each other and then he began to edge towards the door. I drew aside to let him pass and he ran to the door and turned the handle. When he found the door locked he was furious. He advanc

my original purpose. He expressed a wish to leave the house and to know 'what my game was.' I replied that he was my game and that I believed that I had bagged him, whereupon he rushed at me and aimed

o inflict unorthodox injuries. He struggled and writhed and growled and kicked and even tried to bite; while I kept, as far as I could, control of his wrists and waited my opportunity. It was a most undignified affair. We staggered to and fro, clawing at one another; we gyrated round the room in a wild, unseemly waltz; we knocked over th

hung on to his wrists while he struggled to wrench them free, and we pulled one another backwards and forwards and round and round in the most absurd and amateurish manner, each trying to trip the other up a

ht hand, which flew to his hip-pocket and came out grasping a small revolver. Instantly I struck up with my left and caught him a smart blow under the chin, which dislodged him; and as he rolled over there was a flash and a report, accompanied by the shattering of glass and followed immediately by the slamming of the street door. I let go his left hand, and, rising to my knees, grabbed the revolver with my own left, while, with my

re of his hair; but my candle-lamp, with its parabolic reflector, would give ample light. I ran through into the museum, where it was still burning, and, catching it up, ran back

ted more or less automatically, impelled by the desire to identify the burglar. What I did was to c

plain-clothes officer entered and the

away?' the ser

s only one

basement. The charwoman came in and looked gloatingly at my battered c

same as what your poor lady was. It's better to let them sort of people alo

while the woman cast fascinated glances round the disordered room. Then two of the officers returne

e man,' said the plain-clothe

y, sir. Seems to have been a lively party.' He glanced round the

ken up,' proceeded with his investigations. I watched the two men listlessly. I was not much interested in

e's a carpet bag.' He drew it out from under the table and hoisted it up unde

p?' said t

s Jimmy Ar

No

en to him by the 'Discharged Prisoners' Aid So

burglar's name, and then my interest languished again. The two officers looked over the room together, tried the museum door and noted that it had not been tampered with; turned over the plate an

urglar was lying just inside. It was extremely annoying. I wanted to make sure that the man was really dead, and, especially, I wanted to examine his hair and to compare his finger-prints with the set that I had in the museum. Howev

rty to 'determine,' as the lawyers say, the lease of my ruined life? That was a question which the morning light would answer; and meanwhile one thing was

ndistinguishable ash; and yet-well, it seemed a wasteful thing to do. I have always been rather opposed to cremation, to the wanton destruction of valuable anatomical material. And now I was actually proposing, myself, to practice that wh

monger, no collector of frivolous and unmeaning trifles. A specimen must illustrate some truth. Now what

nts (such as that of Charlotte Corday), form the entire material on which criminal anthropologists base their unsatisfactory generaliza

in the museum, but I had read the account through, and now recalled it. The Mundurucú warrior, when he had killed an enemy, cut off his head with a broad bamboo knife and proceeded to preserve it thus: First he soaked it for a time

maller, leaving the features, however, practically unaltered. Finally he decorated the little head with bright-colored feathers-the Mundurucús were very clever

d intended to get a dead monkey from Jamrach's and experiment in the process. But now it seemed that the monkey would be unnecessa

hat he called an 'eye-opener'-about two fluid-ounces. When he had gone I let myself into the museum lobby. The burglar was quite dead and beginning to stiffen. That was satisfactory; but was he the right man? I snipped off a little tuft of hair and carried it to the laboratory

rmly colored with brown pig

othing to regret on that score. He would not have died in vain. Alive he was merely a nuisance and a dang

e burglar into the laboratory and deposited him in the tank, shutting the air-tight lid and securing it with a padlock. For further security I locked the cupboard, and, when I had washed the floor of the l

areful, methodical and eminently cautious man. Hence, as I took my breakfast and planned out my procedure, an important fact made itself evident. I should presently have in my museum a human skeleton which I should have acquir

eology. I did not, of course, inform him that I had come to buy an understudy for a deceased burglar. I merely asked for an articulated skeleton, to stand and not to hang (hanging involves an unsightly suspension ring attached to the skull). I looked over his stock with a steel measuring-tape in my hand,

g the goods and duly dated and receipted. I did not take my purchase away with me; but it arrived the same day, in a

ws of the face, a separate photograph of each ear, and two aspects of the hands. I also t

cal character and not very well suited to the taste of lay readers. The final

strating Crimin

A. Ost

, aged 37. ♂. Height 63

e-arms-a potential homicide. His general intelligence appears to have been of a low order, his manual skill very imperfect (he w

ty 1594 cc. Cep

al characters see Album E 1, pp. 1, 2 and 3, and

f-fact style. Was poor Challoner mad? Had he an insane obsession on the subject of crime and criminals? Or was he, perchance, abnormally

aps a further study of his Archive