"whatever it was," said eustace to saunders on the following morning, "i propose that we drop the subject. there's nothing to keep us here for the next ten days. we'll motor up to the lakes and get some climbing."
"and see nobody all day, and sit bored to death with each other every night. not for me thanks. why not run up to town? run's the exact word in this case, isn't it? we're both in such a blessed funk. pull yourself together eustace, and let's have another look at the hand."
"as you like," said eustace; "there's the key." they went into the library and opened the desk. the box was as they had left it on the previous night.
"what are you waiting for?" asked eustace.
"i am waiting for you to volunteer to open the lid. however, since you seem to funk it, allow me. there doesn't seem to be the likelihood of any rumpus this morning, at all events." he opened the lid and picked out the hand.
"cold?" asked eustace.
"tepid. a bit below blood-heat by the feel. soft and supple too. if it's the embalming, it's a sort of embalming i've never seen before. is it your uncle's hand?"
"oh, yes, it's his all right," said eustace. "i should know those long thin fingers anywhere. put it back in the box, saunders. never mind about the screws. i'll lock the desk, so that there'll be no chance of its getting out. we'll compromise by motoring up to town for a week. if we get off soon after lunch we ought to be at grantham or stamford by night."
"right," said saunders; "and to-morrow—oh, well, by to-morrow we shall have forgotten all about this beastly thing."
if when the morrow came they had not forgotten, it was certainly true that at the end of the week they were able to tell a very vivid ghost story at the little supper eustace gave on hallow e'en.
"you don't want us to believe that it's true, mr. borlsover? how perfectly awful!"
"i'll take my oath on it, and so would saunders here; wouldn't you, old chap?"
"any number of oaths," said saunders. "it was a long thin hand, you know, and it gripped me just like that."
"don't mr. saunders! don't! how perfectly horrid! now tell us another one, do. only a really creepy one, please!"
"here's a pretty mess!" said eustace on the following day as he threw a letter across the table to saunders. "it's your affair, though. mrs. merrit, if i understand it, gives a month's notice."
"oh, that's quite absurd on mrs. merrit's part," saunders replied. "she doesn't know what she's talking about. let's see what she says."
"dear sir," he read, "this is to let you know that i must give you a month's notice as from tuesday the 13th. for a long time i've felt the place too big for me, but when jane parfit, and emma laidlaw go off with scarcely as much as an 'if you please,' after frightening the wits out of the other girls, so that they can't turn out a room by themselves or walk alone down the stairs for fear of treading on half-frozen toads or hearing it run along the passages at night, all i can say is that it's no place for me. so i must ask you, mr. borlsover, sir, to find a new housekeeper that has no objection to large and lonely houses, which some people do say, not that i believe them for a minute, my poor mother always having been a wesleyan, are haunted.
"yours faithfully,
elizabeth merrit.
"p.s.—i should be obliged if you would give my respects to mr. saunders. i hope that he won't run no risks with his cold."
"saunders," said eustace, "you've always had a wonderful way with you in dealing with servants. you mustn't let poor old merrit go."
"of course she shan't go," said saunders. "she's probably only angling for a rise in salary. i'll write to her this morning."
"no; there's nothing like a personal interview. we've had enough of town. we'll go back to-morrow, and you must work your cold for all it's worth. don't forget that it's got on to the chest, and will require weeks of feeding up and nursing."
"all right. i think i can manage mrs. merrit."
but mrs. merrit was more obstinate than he had thought. she was very sorry to hear of mr. saunders's cold, and how he lay awake all night in london coughing; very sorry indeed. she'd change his room for him gladly, and get the south room aired. and wouldn't he have a basin of hot bread and milk last thing at night? but she was afraid that she would have to leave at the end of the month.
"try her with an increase of salary," was the advice of eustace.
it was no use. mrs. merrit was obdurate, though she knew of a mrs. handyside who had been housekeeper to lord gargrave, who might be glad to come at the salary mentioned.
"what's the matter with the servants, morton?" asked eustace that evening when he brought the coffee into the library. "what's all this about mrs. merrit wanting to leave?"
"if you please, sir, i was going to mention it myself. i have a confession to make, sir. when i found your note asking me to open that desk and take out the box with the rat, i broke the lock as you told me, and was glad to do it, because i could hear the animal in the box making a great noise, and i thought it wanted food. so i took out the box, sir, and got a cage, and was going to transfer it, when the animal got away."
"what in the world are you talking about? i never wrote any such note."
"excuse me, sir, it was the note i picked up here on the floor on the day you and mr. saunders left. i have it in my pocket now."
it certainly seemed to be in eustace's handwriting. it was written in pencil, and began somewhat abruptly.
"get a hammer, morton," he read, "or some other tool, and break open the lock in the old desk in the library. take out the box that is inside. you need not do anything else. the lid is already open. eustace borlsover."
"and you opened the desk?"
"yes, sir; and as i was getting the cage ready the animal hopped out."
"what animal?"
"the animal inside the box, sir."
"what did it look like?"
"well, sir, i couldn't tell you," said morton nervously; "my back was turned, and it was halfway down the room when i looked up."
"what was its color?" asked saunders; "black?"
"oh, no, sir, a grayish white. it crept along in a very funny way, sir. i don't think it had a tail."
"what did you do then?"
"i tried to catch it, but it was no use. so i set the rat-traps and kept the library shut. then that girl emma laidlaw left the door open when she was cleaning, and i think it must have escaped."
"and you think it was the animal that's been frightening the maids?"
"well, no, sir, not quite. they said it was—you'll excuse me, sir—a hand that they saw. emma trod on it once at the bottom of the stairs. she thought then it was a half-frozen toad, only white. and then parfit was washing up the dishes in the scullery. she wasn't thinking about anything in particular. it was close on dusk. she took her hands out of the water and was drying them absent-minded like on the roller towel, when she found that she was drying someone else's hand as well, only colder than hers."
"what nonsense!" exclaimed saunders.
"exactly, sir; that's what i told her; but we couldn't get her to stop."
"you don't believe all this?" said eustace, turning suddenly towards the butler.
"me, sir? oh, no, sir! i've not seen anything."
"nor heard anything?"
"well, sir, if you must know, the bells do ring at odd times, and there's nobody there when we go; and when we go round to draw the blinds of a night, as often as not somebody's been there before us. but as i says to mrs. merrit, a young monkey might do wonderful things, and we all know that mr. borlsover has had some strange animals about the place."
"very well, morton, that will do."
"what do you make of it?" asked saunders when they were alone. "i mean of the letter he said you wrote."
"oh, that's simple enough," said eustace. "see the paper it's written on? i stopped using that years ago, but there were a few odd sheets and envelopes left in the old desk. we never fastened up the lid of the box before locking it in. the hand got out, found a pencil, wrote this note, and shoved it through a crack on to the floor where morton found it. that's plain as daylight."
"but the hand couldn't write?"
"couldn't it? you've not seen it do the things i've seen," and he told saunders more of what had happened at eastbourne.
"well," said saunders, "in that case we have at least an explanation of the legacy. it was the hand which wrote unknown to your uncle that letter to your solicitor, bequeathing itself to you. your uncle had no more to do with that request than i. in fact, it would seem that he had some idea of this automatic writing, and feared it."
"then if it's not my uncle, what is it?"
"i suppose some people might say that a disembodied spirit had got your uncle to educate and prepare a little body for it. now it's got into that little body and is off on its own."
"well, what are we to do?"
"we'll keep our eyes open," said saunders, "and try to catch it. if we can't do that, we shall have to wait till the bally clockwork runs down. after all, if it's flesh and blood, it can't live for ever."
for two days nothing happened. then saunders saw it sliding down the banister in the hall. he was taken unawares, and lost a full second before he started in pursuit, only to find that the thing had escaped him. three days later, eustace, writing alone in the library at night, saw it sitting on an open book at the other end of the room. the fingers crept over the page, feeling the print as if it were reading; but before he had time to get up from his seat, it had taken the alarm and was pulling itself up the curtains. eustace watched it grimly as it hung on to the cornice with three fingers, flicking thumb and forefinger at him in an expression of scornful derision.
"i know what i'll do," he said. "if i only get it into the open i'll set the dogs on to it."
he spoke to saunders of the suggestion.
"it's jolly good idea," he said; "only we won't wait till we find it out of doors. we'll get the dogs. there are the two terriers and the under-keeper's irish mongrel that's on to rats like a flash. your spaniel has not got spirit enough for this sort of game." they brought the dogs into the house, and the keeper's irish mongrel chewed up the slippers, and the terriers tripped up morton as he waited at table; but all three were welcome. even false security is better than no security at all.
for a fortnight nothing happened. then the hand was caught, not by the dogs, but by mrs. merrit's gray parrot. the bird was in the habit of periodically removing the pins that kept its seed and water tins in place, and of escaping through the holes in the side of the cage. when once at liberty peter would show no inclination to return, and would often be about the house for days. now, after six consecutive weeks of captivity, peter had again discovered a new means of unloosing his bolts and was at large, exploring the tapestried forests of the curtains and singing songs in praise of liberty from cornice and picture rail.
"it's no use your trying to catch him," said eustace to mrs. merrit, as she came into the study one afternoon towards dusk with a step-ladder. "you'd much better leave peter alone. starve him into surrender, mrs. merrit, and don't leave bananas and seed about for him to peck at when he fancies he's hungry. you're far too softhearted."
"well, sir, i see he's right out of reach now on that picture rail, so if you wouldn't mind closing the door, sir, when you leave the room, i'll bring his cage in to-night and put some meat inside it. he's that fond of meat, though it does make him pull out his feathers to suck the quills. they do say that if you cook—"
"never mind, mrs. merrit," said eustace, who was busy writing. "that will do; i'll keep an eye on the bird."
there was silence in the room, unbroken but for the continuous whisper of his pen.
"scratch poor peter," said the bird. "scratch poor old peter!"
"be quiet, you beastly bird!"
"poor old peter! scratch poor peter, do."
"i'm more likely to wring your neck if i get hold of you." he looked up at the picture rail, and there was the hand holding on to a hook with three fingers, and slowly scratching the head of the parrot with the fourth. eustace ran to the bell and pressed it hard; then across to the window, which he closed with a bang. frightened by the noise the parrot shook its wings preparatory to flight, and as it did so the fingers of the hand got hold of it by the throat. there was a shrill scream from peter as he fluttered across the room, wheeling round in circles that ever descended, borne down under the weight that clung to him. the bird dropped at last quite suddenly, and eustace saw fingers and feathers rolled into an inextricable mass on the floor. the struggle abruptly ceased as finger and thumb squeezed the neck; the bird's eyes rolled up to show the whites, and there was a faint, half-choked gurgle. but before the fingers had time to loose their hold, eustace had them in his own.
"send mr. saunders here at once," he said to the maid who came in answer to the bell. "tell him i want him immediately."
then he went with the hand to the fire. there was a ragged gash across the back where the bird's beak had torn it, but no blood oozed from the wound. he noticed with disgust that the nails had grown long and discolored.
"i'll burn the beastly thing," he said. but he could not burn it. he tried to throw it into the flames, but his own hands, as if restrained by some old primitive feeling, would not let him. and so saunders found him pale and irresolute, with the hand still clasped tightly in his fingers.
"i've got it at last," he said in a tone of triumph.
"good; let's have a look at it."
"not when it's loose. get me some nails and a hammer and a board of some sort."
"can you hold it all right?"
"yes, the thing's quite limp; tired out with throttling poor old peter, i should say."
"and now," said saunders when he returned with the things, "what are we going to do?"
"drive a nail through it first, so that it can't get away; then we can take our time over examining it."
"do it yourself," said saunders. "i don't mind helping you with guinea-pigs occasionally when there's something to be learned; partly because i don't fear a guinea-pig's revenge. this thing's different."
"all right, you miserable skunk. i won't forget the way you've stood by me."
he took up a nail, and before saunders had realised what he was doing had driven it through the hand, deep into the board.
"oh, my aunt," he giggled hysterically, "look at it now," for the hand was writhing in agonized contortions, squirming and wriggling upon the nail like a worm upon the hook.
"well," said saunders, "you've done it now. i'll leave you to examine it."
"don't go, in heaven's name. cover it up, man, cover it up! shove a cloth over it! here!" and he pulled off the antimacassar from the back of a chair and wrapped the board in it. "now get the keys from my pocket and open the safe. chuck the other things out. oh, lord, it's getting itself into frightful knots! and open it quick!" he threw the thing in and banged the door.
"we'll keep it there till it dies," he said. "may i burn in hell if i ever open the door of that safe again."
mrs. merrit departed at the end of the month. her successor certainly was more successful in the management of the servants. early in her rule she declared that she would stand no nonsense, and gossip soon withered and died. eustace borlsover went back to his old way of life. old habits crept over and covered his new experience. he was, if anything, less morose, and showed a greater inclination to take his natural part in country society.
"i shouldn't be surprised if he marries one of these days," said saunders. "well, i'm in no hurry for such an event. i know eustace far too well for the future mrs. borlsover to like me. it will be the same old story again: a long friendship slowly made—marriage—and a long friendship quickly forgotten."
