"good evening, sir. a bit gusty?"
"very much so, sergeant," i replied. "i think i will step into your hut for a moment and light my pipe if i may."
"certainly, sir. matches are too scarce nowadays to take risks with 'em. but it looks as if the storm had blown over."
"i'm not sorry," said i, entering the little hut like a sentry-box which stands at the entrance to this old village high street for accommodation of the officer on point duty at that spot. "i have a longish walk before me."
"yes. your place is right off the beat, isn't it?" mused my acquaintance, as sheltered from the keen wind i began to load my briar. "very inconvenient i've always thought it for a gentleman who gets about as much as you do."
"that's why i like it," i explained. "if i lived anywhere accessible i should never get a moment's peace, you see. at the same time i have to be within an hour's journey of fleet street."
i often stopped for a chat at this point and i was acquainted with most of the men of p. division on whom the duty devolved from time to time. it was a lonely spot at night when the residents in the neighborhood had retired, so that the darkened houses seemed to withdraw yet farther into the gardens separating them from the highroad. a relic of the days when trains and motor-buses were not, dusk restored something of an old-world atmosphere to the village street, disguising the red brick and stucco which in many cases had displaced the half-timbered houses of the past. yet it was possible in still weather to hear the muted bombilation of the sleepless city and when the wind was in the north to count the hammer-strokes of the great bell of st. paul's.
standing in the shelter of the little hut, i listened to the rain dripping from over-reaching branches and to the gurgling of a turgid little stream which flowed along the gutter near my feet whilst now and again swift gusts of the expiring tempest would set tossing the branches of the trees which lined the way.
"it's much cooler to-night," said the sergeant.
i nodded, being in the act of lighting my pipe. the storm had interrupted a spell of that tropical weather which sometimes in july and august brings the breath of africa to london, and this coolness resulting from the storm was very welcome. then:
"well, good night," i said, and was about to pursue my way when the telephone bell in the police-hut rang sharply.
"hullo," called the sergeant.
i paused, idly curious concerning the message, and:
"the red house," continued the sergeant, "in college road? yes, i know it. it's on bolton's beat, and he is due here now. very good; i'll tell him."
he hung up the receiver and, turning to me, smiled and nodded his head resignedly.
"the police get some funny jobs, sir," he confided. "only last night a gentleman rang up the station and asked them to tell me to stop a short, stout lady with yellow hair and a big blue hat (that was the only description) as she passed this point and to inform her that her husband had had to go out but that he had left the door-key just inside the dog-kennel!"
he laughed good-humoredly.
"now to-night," he resumed, "here's somebody just rung up to say that he thinks, only thinks, mind you, that he has forgotten to lock his garage and will the constable on that beat see if the keys have been left behind. if so, will he lock the door from the inside, go out through the back, lock that door and leave the keys at the station on coming off duty!"
"yes," i said. "there are some absent-minded people in the world. but do you mean the red house in college road?"
"that's it," replied the sergeant, stepping out of the hut and looking intently to the left.
"ah, here comes bolton."
he referred to a stolid, red-faced constable who at that moment came plodding across the muddy road, and:
"a job for you, bolton," he cried. "listen. you know the red house in college road?"
bolton removed his helmet and scratched his closely-cropped head.
"let me see," he mused; "it's on the right—"
"no, no," i interrupted. "it is a house about half-way down on the left; very secluded, with a high brick wall in front."
"oh! you mean the empty house?" inquired the constable.
"just what i was about to remark, sergeant," said i, turning to my acquaintance. "to the best of my knowledge the red house has been vacant for twelve months or more."
"has it?" exclaimed the sergeant. "that's funny. still, it's none of my business; besides it may have been let within the last few days. anyway, listen, bolton. you are to see if the garage is unlocked. if it is and the keys are there, go in and lock the door behind you. there's another door at the other end; go out and lock that too. leave the keys at the depôt when you go off. got that fixed?"
"yes," replied bolton, and he stood helmet in hand, half inaudibly muttering the sergeant's instructions, evidently with the idea of impressing them upon his memory.
"i have to pass the red house, constable," i interrupted, "and as you seem doubtful respecting its whereabouts, i will point the place out to you."
"thank you, sir," said bolton, replacing his helmet and ceasing to mutter.
"once more—good night, sergeant," i cried, and met by a keen gust of wind which came sweeping down the village street, showering cascades of water from the leaves above, i set out in step with my stolid companion.
it is supposed poetically that unusual events cast their shadows before them, and i am prepared to maintain the correctness of such a belief. but unless the silence of the constable who walked beside me was due to the unseen presence of such a shadow, and not to a habitual taciturnity, there was nothing in that march through the deserted streets calculated to arouse me to the fact that i was entering upon the first phase of an experience more strange and infinitely more horrible than any of which i had ever known or even read.
the shadow had not yet reached me.
we talked little enough on the way, for the breeze when it came was keen and troublesome, so that i was often engaged in clutching my hat. except for a dejected-looking object, obviously a member of the tramp fraternity, who passed us near the gate of the old chapel, we met never a soul from the time that we left the police-box until the moment when the high brick wall guarding the red house came into view beyond a line of glistening wet hedgerow.
"this is the house, constable," i said. "the garage is beyond the main entrance."
we proceeded as far as the closed gates, whereupon:
"there you are, sir," said bolton triumphantly. "i told you it was empty."
an estate agent's bill faced us, setting forth the desirable features of the residence, the number of bedrooms and reception rooms, modern conveniences, garage, etc., together with the extent of the garden, lawn and orchard.
a faint creaking sound drew my glance upward, and stepping back a pace i stared at a hatchet-board projecting above the wall which bore two duplicates of the bill posted upon the gate.
"that seems to confirm it," i declared, peering through the trees in the direction of the house. "the place has all the appearance of being deserted."
"there's some mistake," muttered bolton.
"then the mistake is not ours," i replied. "see, the bills are headed 'to be let or sold. the red house, etc.'"
"h'm," growled bolton. "it's a funny go, this is. suppose we have a look at the garage."
we walked along together to where, set back in a recess, i had often observed the doors of a garage evidently added to the building by some recent occupier. dangling from a key placed in the lock was a ring to which another key was attached!
"well, i'm blowed," said bolton, "this is a funny go, this is."
he unlocked the door and swept the interior of the place with a ray of light cast by his lantern. there were one or two petrol cans and some odd lumber suggesting that the garage had been recently used, but no car, and indeed nothing of sufficient value to have interested even such a derelict as the man whom we had passed some ten minutes before. that is if i except a large and stoutly-made packing-case which rested only a foot or so from the entrance so as partly to block it, and which from its appearance might possibly have contained spare parts. i noticed, with vague curiosity, a device crudely representing a seated cat which was painted in green upon the case.
"if there ever was anything here," said bolton, "it's been pinched and we're locking the stable door after the horse has gone. you'll bear me out, sir, if there's any complaint?"
"certainly," i replied. "technically i shall be trespassing if i come in with you, so i shall say good night."
"good night, sir," cried the constable, and entering the empty garage, he closed the door behind him.
i set off briskly alone towards the cottage which i had made my home. i have since thought that the motives which had induced me to choose this secluded residence were of a peculiarly selfish order. whilst i liked sometimes to be among my fellowmen and whilst i rarely missed an important first night in london, my inherent weakness for obscure studies and another motive to which i may refer later had caused me to abandon my chambers in the temple and to retire with my library to this odd little backwater where my only link with fleet street, with the land of theaters and clubs and noise and glitter, was the telephone. i scarcely need add that i had sufficient private means to enable me to indulge these whims, otherwise as a working journalist i must have been content to remain nearer to the heart of things. as it was i followed the careless existence of the independent free-lance, and since my work was accounted above the average i was enabled to pick and choose the subjects with which i should deal. mine was not an ambitious nature—or it may have been that stimulus was lacking—and all i wrote i wrote for the mere joy of writing, whilst my studies, of which i shall have occasion to speak presently, were not of a nature calculated to swell my coffers in this commercial-minded age.
little did i know how abruptly this chosen calm of my life was to be broken nor how these same studies were to be turned in a new and strange direction. but if on this night which was to witness the overture of a horrible drama, i had not hitherto experienced any premonition of the coming of those dark forces which were to change the whole tenor of my existence, suddenly, now, in sight of the elm tree which stood before my cottage the shadow reached me.
only thus can i describe a feeling otherwise unaccountable which prompted me to check my steps and to listen. a gust of wind had just died away, leaving the night silent save for the dripping of rain from the leaves and the vague and remote roar of the town. once, faintly, i thought i detected the howling of a dog. i had heard nothing in the nature of following footsteps, yet, turning swiftly, i did not doubt that i should detect the presence of a follower of some kind. this conviction seized me suddenly and, as i have said, unaccountably. nor was i wrong in my surmise.
fifty yards behind me a vaguely defined figure showed for an instant outlined against the light of a distant lamp—ere melting into the dense shadow cast by a clump of trees near the roadside.
standing quite still, i stared in the direction of the patch of shadow for several moments. it may be said that there was nothing to occasion alarm or even curiosity in the appearance of a stray pedestrian at that hour; for it was little after midnight. indeed thus i argued with myself, whereby i admit that at sight of that figure i had experienced a sensation which was compounded not only of alarm and curiosity but also of some other emotion which even now i find it hard to define. instantly i knew that the lithe shape, glimpsed but instantaneously, was that of no chance pedestrian—was indeed that of no ordinary being. at the same moment i heard again, unmistakably, the howling of a dog.
having said so much, why should i not admit that, turning again very quickly, i hurried on to the gate of my cottage and heaved a great sigh of relief when i heard the reassuring bang of the door as i closed it behind me? coates, my batman, had turned in, having placed a cold repast upon the table in the little dining-room; but although i required nothing to eat i partook of a stiff whisky and soda, idly glancing at two or three letters which lay upon the table.
they proved to contain nothing of very great importance, and having smoked a final cigarette, i turned out the light in the dining-room and walked into the bedroom—for the cottage was of bungalow pattern—and, crossing the darkened room, stood looking out of the window.
it commanded a view of a little kitchen-garden and beyond of a high hedge, with glimpses of sentinel trees lining the main road. the wind had dropped entirely, but clouds were racing across the sky at a tremendous speed so that the nearly full moon alternately appeared and disappeared, producing an ever-changing effect of light and shadow. at one moment a moon-bathed prospect stretched before me as far as the eye could reach, in the next i might have been looking into a cavern as some angry cloud swept across the face of the moon to plunge the scene into utter darkness.
and it was during such a dark spell and at the very moment that i turned aside to light the lamp that i saw the eyes.
from a spot ten yards removed, low down under the hedges bordering the garden, they looked up at me—those great, glittering cat's eyes, so that i stifled an exclamation, drawing back instinctively from the window. a tiger, i thought, or some kindred wild beast, must have escaped from captivity. and so rapidly does the mind work at such times that instinctively i had reviewed the several sporting pieces in my possession and had selected a rifle which had proved serviceable in india ere i had taken one step towards the door.
before that step could be taken the light of the moon again flooded the garden; and although there was no opening in the hedge by which even a small animal could have retired, no living thing was in sight! but, near and remote, dogs were howling mournfully.
