Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

12 articles on this Page

MARVELS AND MYSTERIES.

News
Cite
Share

MARVELS AND MYSTERIES. BY RICHARD MARSH, Author of "The Beetle: A Mystery," "The Crime and tiie Criminal," "The Datchet Diamonds," &c., &c. [COPYRIGHT.] THE MASK. CHAPTER ill. Table d'hote had commenced when I sat down. My right-hand neighbour was Mrs. Jaynes. She asked me if I still suffered any ill effects from my fatigue. "I suppose," she said, when I assured her that all ill effects had passed away, that you have not thought anything of what I said to you this morn- ing-aboul my theory of the mask?" I confessed that I had not. "You should. It is a subject which is a crotchet of mine, and to which I have devoted many years— many curious years of my life." I own that, personally, I do not see exactly where the interest comes in." "No? Do me a favour. Come to my sitting- room after dinner, and I will show you where the interest comes in." "How do you mean?" "Come and see." She amused me. I went and saw. Dinner being finished, her proceedings when together we entered her apartment—that apartment which in the morn- ing I thought I had seen entered by my fellow- passenger—took me a little by surprise. "Now I am going to make you my confidant— you, an entire stranger—you, whom I never saw in my life before this morning. I am a judge of character, and in you I feel that I may place im- plicit confidence. I am going to show you all my secrets I am going to induct you into the hidden mysteries I am going to Vay bare before you the mind of an inventor. But it doesn't follow be- cause I have confidence in you that I have confi- dence in all the world besides, so, before we begin, if you please, I will lock the door." As she was suiting the action to the word I ven- tured to remonstrate. ? )t But, my dear madam, don't you think-" I think nothing. I know that I don t wish to be taken unawares, and to have published what I have devoted the better portion of my life to keeping secret." But if these matters are of such a confidential nature I assure you-" My good sir, I lock the door." She did. I was sorry that I had accepted so hastily her invitation, but I yielded. The door was locked. Going to the fire-place she leaned her arm upon the mantel-shelf. "Did it ever occur to you," she asked, "what possibilities might be open to us if, for instance, Smith could temporarily become Jones?" I don't quite follow you," I said. I didn't. Suppose that you could at will become another person, and in the character of that other person could move about unrecognised among your friends, what lessons you might learn!" "I suspect," I murmured, "that they would for the most part be lessons of a decidedly unpleasant kind." "Carry the idea a step further. Think of the possibilities of a dual existence. Think of living two distinct and separate lives. Think of doing as Robinson what you condemn as Brown. Think of doubling the parts and hiding within your own breast the secret of the double think of leading a triple life; think of leading many lives in one—of being the aid man and the young, the husband and the wife, the father and the son." Think, in other words, of the unattainable." "Not unattainable!" Moving away from the mantel-shelf, she raised her hand above her head with a gesture which was all at once dramatic. I have attained t" "You have attained? To what?" To the multiple existence. It is the secret of the mask. I told myself some years ago that it ought to be possible to make a. mask which should in every respect so closely resemble the human countenance that it would be difficult, if not impossible, even under the most trying conditions, to tell the false face from the real. I made experiments. I succeeded. I learnt the secret of the mask. Look at that." She took a leather case from her pocket. Abstract- ing its contents she handed them to me. I was holding in my hand what seemed to me to be a preparation of some sort of skin—gold-beater's skin, it might have been. On one side it was curiously, and even delicately, painted. On the other side there were fastened to the skin some oddly shaped 1bosses or pads. The whole affair, I suppose, did not weigh half an ounce. While I was examining it Mrs. Jaynes stood looking down at me. "You hold in your hand," she said, "the secret of the mask. Give it to me." I gave it to her. With it in her hand she dis- appeared into the room beyond. Hardly had she vanished than the bedroom door reopened, and an old lady came out. "My daughter begs you will excuse her." She was a quaint old lady, about sixty years of age, with silver hair, and the corkscrew ringlets of a bygone day. My daughter is not very ceremonious, and is so wrapt up in what she calls her experiments that I sometimes tell her she is wanting in consideration. While she is making her preparations perhaps you will allow me to offer you a cup of tea." The old lady carried a canister in her hand, which, apparently, contained tea. A tea-service was stand- ing on a little side-table. A kettle wa.s singing on the hob. The old lady began to measure out the tea into the teapot. „ We always carry our tea with us. Neither my daughter nor I care'for the tea which they give you in hotels." I meekly acquiesced. To tell the truth I was a trifle bewildered. I had had no idea that Mrs. Jaynes was accompanied bv her mother. Had not the old lady come out of the room immediately after the young one had gone into it I should have suspected a trick-that I was being made the subject of experiment with the mysterious" mask." As it was, I was more than half-inclined to ask her if she was really what she seemed to be. But I decided— as it turned out most unfortunately—to keep my own counsel and to watch the sequence of events. Pour- ing me out a eup of tea, the old lady seated herself on a low chair m front of the fire. My ^augter thinks a great deal of her experi- xnents. I not encourage her. She quite friglitens me at tunes. She says such dreadful things. I sipped mv tea and smiled -I don't think there is much^cause for fear." "No cause ff Jadr whe« she tells one that she might commit a murder that a hundred thousand people might see her do it, and that not bv anv gUibility could the crime be brought home to hec'" Perhaps she exaggerates a little." 41 Do vou think that she can hear?" The old lady glanced round m the direction of the be-rTo™& know better th» I. P„h would be M well to say nothing wh.ch JOU D0" But I^iust^telf someone. It frighten, gho ""Ydon* IK if"i -v" 1 W0Uld »»<=!> & St and SlK altogether like her man nervously, one over front of me, rubbing her considerably dis- the other. She certainly seemed co turbed. c T.nndon, and she She came down yesterday fro her experi- says she dreamed that she tried ments-in the train. "In the train!" mitrht be And in order that her experiment m g thorough she robbed a man." "She robbed a man!" "And in her pocket I found this. „ i t> The old lady held out my watch and ehai- was unmistakable. The watch was a hunter, l see that my crest and monogram were engraved up th*> case. I atood up. The strangest part ol affair was that when I gained my feet it seemed as though something had happened to my couia (not move them. Probably something m my de- meanour struck the did lady as strange. She smiled at me. 00 What is the matter with you? Why do you look øo funny?" she exclaimed. That is my watch and chain." Your at.(,h and cham—yours! Then why don't you take t.hem?" She held them out to me in her extended paJm. She was not six feet from where I stood, yet I could not reach them. Mv feet --med glued to the floor. "j I canxK* move. Something has happened to my legs." T Perhaps it J6 the tea* I will go and tell my ^Before l couM say a word to stop her sh? was gone. I was fastened like A post to the ground. What had happened to me was more than I could say. It had all come m an in.<tanc. I felt 3.4 I had feit in the railway carriage the day before as though I were m a dream. I looked around me. I saw the teacup on the little table at, my side. I saw the flickering fire, I saw the shaded :ampe; I was conscious of the presence of ail these things, but I saw them as it I saw them in a dream. A sense of na usea. was steal- ing over me—a sense of horror. I was afraid of I knew rot what. I was unable to ward cff or to con- trol mv fear. I cannot say how long I stood tlwrE-certa inly some- minutes—helpless, struggling against the pres- sure which seemed to weigh upon my brain. Sad denlv, without any sort of warning, the bedroom door opened, and there walked into the room the young man who before dinner had visited me in my own apartmfut, and who. yesterday had travelled with me in the tram. He came straight across the room, and. with the most perfect coolness, stood .trht in honnt of mp I flint in his F»hirt- front were my stutfe. When he raised his hands I could lee that in his wristbands were my links. 1 con id «ee tlfat he was wearing my watch and chain. He TO actually holding my watch in his hand when he addressed me. I have only hatf a minute to spare, but I wanted to speak to you ab^nt—Mary Brooker. I saw her ( portrait in your room—yoa remember ? She's what is called a criminal lunatic—and she's escaped from Broadmoor. Let me see, I think it was a week to- dav- and just about this time-no, it's now a quarter to nine; it was just after nine." He slipped my watch into his waistcoat pocket. She's still at large, you know. They're on the look-out for her all over England, but she's still at large. They say she s a lunatic. There are lunatics at Broadmoor, but she's not one. She's no more a lunatic than you cr I." He touched me lightly on the chest. Such was my extreme disgust at being brought into physical con- tact with him that even before the sdigfht pressure of his fingers my legs gave way under me, and I sank back into my chair. "You're not asleep?" Xo," I said. "I'm net asleep." Even in my stupefied condition I was conscious of la desire to leap up and take him by the throax. Nothing of this, however, \va« portrayed upon my face. Or, at any rate, he showed no sign of being struck by it. "She's a misunderstood genius, that s what Mary Brooker is. She has her tastes and people do not understand them. She likes to kill—to kill! One of these days she means to kill herself but in the meantime she takes pleasure in killing others.' Se-ft,t;ng hirr^elf on a corner of the table at my side, allowing one foot to rest upon the ground, he swung the other in t'he air. She's a bit of an actress. too. She wanted to go upon the stag*?, but they said that she was mad. They were jealous, that s wtiat it was. She's the finest actress in the wo-r.d. Her acting would deceive the devil himself—they allowed that even at Bread- moor. Bus she only uses her powers for acting to gratify her taste—for killing. It was only the other day she bought this knife." He took. apparently out of the bosom of his vest, a long glittering, cruel-looking knife. point—and the edge." He held it out towards me. I did not attempt to touch it. It is probable that I sfhould ndt have suc- ceeded even if I had attempted. "You won't? Well. perhaps you're right. It's not much fun killing people wk'h a knife. A knife's ad very well to use for cutting them up afterwards, but she likes to do the actual killing with her own hands and nails. I shouldn't be surprised if, cue of these days. she were to kill you. Perhaps to- il: ?h:. It is a long time since she kil'ed anyone, and she is hungry. Sorrv I can't stay. But tirs ,.1, week she escaped from Broadmoor as the clock had finished striking nine, and it only wants ten minutes, you see." He looked at my watoh—even holding it out for me to see. Good night With a careless nod he moved across the room, holding the glittering knife in his hand. When he reached the bedroom door he turned and smiled. Raising the knife, he waved it towards me in the air. Then he disappeared into the inner room. I was again alone—possibly for a minute or more but this time it seemed to me that mv solitude con- tinued only for a few fleeting seconds Perhaps the time went faster because I felt, or thought I felt, that the pres-ure on my brain was giving way; that I oflY had to make an effort of sufficient force to be myself again and free. The power of making such an effort was temporarily absent, but something with- in seemed to tell me that at any moment it might I return. The bedroom door-that door which, even as I looked back, seems to have been really and truly a door in some unpleasant dream-reopened. Mrs. Jaynes came in. With rapid strides she swept across the room. She had something in her right hand which she threw upon the table. "Well," she cried, "what do you think of the secret of the mask? The secret of the mask? Although my limbs were powerless throughout it all, I retained to a certain extent the control of my own voice. See here—it is such a little thing." She picked up Lhe two objects which she had thrown upon the table. One of them was the preparation of some 60rt of skin which she had shown to me before. These are the masks. You would not think that they were perfect representations of the human face -—that masterpiece of creative art-and yet they are. All the world would be deceived by them as you have been. This is an old woman's face, this is the f"co I of a young man." As she held them up I could see, though still a little dimly, that the objects which she dangled before my eyes were, as she said, veritable masks. So perfect are they, they might have been skinned from the fionts of living creatures. They are such little things, yet I have made them with what toil! They have been the work of years, tb."p two, and just one other. You see nothing satisfied me but perfection. I have made hundreds to make these two. People could not make out what I was doing. They thought that I was making toys. ] told them that I was. They smiled at me. They thought that it was a new phase of madness. If that be so, then in madness there is more cool, en- during, unconquerable resolution than in all youi sanity I m?ant to conquer, and I did. Failure did not dish-arter me. I went straight on. I had a purpose to fulfil; I would have fulfilled it even though I should have had first to die. Well, it is fulfilled." Turning, she flung the masks into the fire. They were immediately in flames. She pointed to them as they burned. The labour of years is soon consumed. But I should not have triumphed had I not been endowed with genius—the genius of the actor's art. I told myself that I would play certain parts—parts which would fit the masks—and that I would be the parts I played. Not only across the footlights, not only with a certain amount of space between my audience and me, not only for the passing hour, but, if I chose, for ever and for aye. So all through the years I rehearsed these parts when I was not engaged upon the masks. That, they thought, was madness in another phase. One of the parts,"—she came closer to me; her voice became shriller—" one of the parts was that of an old woman. Have vou seen her? She is in the fire." She jerked her thumb in the direction of the fireplace. Her part is played —she had to see that the tea was drunk. Another of the parts was that of a young gentleman. Think of my playing the man Absurd. For there is that about a woman which is not to be disguised. She always reveals her sex when she puts on men's clothes. You noticed it, did you not-when, before dinner, he came to you when you saw him in the corridor this morning; when yesterday he spent an hour with you in the train? I know you noticed it because of these." She drew out of her pocket a handful of things. There were my links, my studs, my watch and chain, other properties of mine. Although the influence of the drug which had been administered to me in the tea was passing off, I felt, even more than ever, as though I were an actor in a dream. The third part which I chose to play was the part of-Mrs. Jaynes Clasping her hands behind her back, she posed in front of me in an attitude which was essentially dramatic. Look at me well. Scan all my points. Appraise me. You say that I am beautiful. I saw that you admired my hair, which flows loose upon my shoulders "-she unloosed the fastenings of her hair 180 that it did flow loose upon her shoulders—" the bloom upon my cheeks, the dimple in my chin, my face in its entirety. It is the secret of the mask, my friend—the secret of the mask! You ask me why i have watched, and toiled, and schemed to make the secret mine." She stretched out her hand with an uncanny gesture. Because I wished to gratify my taste for killing. Yesterday I might have killed you to-night I will." She did something to her head and dress. There Wa.s a rustle of drapery. It was like a conjurer's change. Mrs. Jaynes had gone, and instead there sorl j • ore me the creature with, as I had de- had lt .to Davis, the face of a devil—the face I entire??11 *n t^le train. The transformation in its statelv wWas wopderful. Mrs. Jaynes was a fine, of life. TvU w*tk a swelling bust and in the prime short, KroJ15! a *ank, scraggy creature, with tended even t a day. The change ex- cultivated auvS. re v°lce- ^rs- Jaynes had the soft, rather than a This creature shrieked week to-day sinc^T6* fm Mary Brooker. It is a are everywhere np0T>°n eedom. The bloodhounds near. But they shall track. They are drawing ail had you." have me till I have first of She came closer, crouch" me with a maniac's eyes, p g forward, glaring at that hideous cry, half gasp10?1 iller 'lp;5 there came haunted me since the day >elP. which had it in my stupor in the train. 6' had heard "I scratched you yesterday, T V- your blood Xow I will 8uck k J you. I sucked "I scratched you yesterday, I bit yoL I sucked your blood Xow I will 8uck k J you. I sucked mine." ^ou are Sil(J reckoned without her host, i the tea. I had noc a* I had doubtl^ bC^^Sd to do, emptied the cup. x was again myself; I was only au;aJU^,a /av^ra^Spor- tunity to close. I meant to hgli, for liie. op^r She came nearer to me and nearer uttering all the time that blood-curdling sound vvhich wa8 lik the rTnzLd ory of some maddened animal. her Sanded iSnds were all but touching j supposed that- I ^i/ed her she gave a shriek ot drug, because vvhen fher unawares. I had astonish*d rage I had ^ke f j her over on her back. But J. through. Sh* undertaken more than 1 could had not only the face of a devil >he had th. Krength of one. She flung mo « » though I were a child. In her turn s down upon my back. Her fingers closed >• neck. I could not shake her off. She was otra g me. Sh<j would have strangled me—she nearly When, attracted by the creature's hideous c" which were heard from without, they forced tnei way into the room, they found me lying unconscioiis, and, as they thought, dead, upon the_ floor. days I hung between life and death. W hen life did come back again Mary Brooker was once more an inmate of Her Majesty's house of detention at Broad- moor. [The End.]

Advertising

Advertising

---NEATH & DISTRICT

Advertising

Advertising

SOMETHING FOR YOUNG FOLKS.

THE ROYAL JUBILEE %TAL¡ ,1)).…

BRITON FERRY.

COMMERCIAL FAILURES.

CONTEMPORARY CHAT.

[No title]