The Black Box Part 14

They made their way up as far as the hedge, which they skirted for a few yards until they found an opening. Then Quest gave vent to a little exclamation. Immediately in front of them was a small hut, built apparently of sticks and bamboos, with a stronger framework behind. The sloping roof was gra.s.s-grown and entwined with rushes. The only apology for a window was a queer little hole set quite close to the roof.

"The sort of place where the Professor might keep some of his pets," Quest observed thoughtfully. "We'll have a look inside, any way."

There was a rude-looking door, but Quest, on trying it, found it locked.

They walked around the place but found no other opening. All the time from inside they could hear queer, scuffling sounds. Lenora's cheeks grew paler.

"Must we stay?" she murmured. "I don't think I want to see what's inside.

Mr. Quest! Mr. Quest!"

She clung to his arm. They were opposite the little aperture which served as a window, and at that moment it suddenly framed the face of a creature, human in features, diabolical in expression. Long hair drooped over one cheek, the close-set eyes were filled with fury, the white teeth gleamed menacingly. Quest felt in his pocket for his revolver.

"Say, that's some face!" he remarked. "I'd hate to spoil it."

Even as he spoke, it disappeared. Quest took out the little gate opening apparatus from his pocket.

"We've got to get inside there, Lenora," he announced, stepping forward.

She followed him silently. A few turns of the wrist and the door yielded.

Keeping Lenora a little behind him, Quest gazed around eagerly. Exactly in front of him, clad only in a loin cloth, with hunched-up shoulders, a necklace around his neck, with blazing eyes and ugly gleaming teeth, crouched some unrecognisable creature, human yet inhuman, a monkey and yet a man. There were a couple of monkeys swinging by their tails from a bar, and a leopard chained to a staple in the ground, walking round and round in the far corner, snapping and snarling every time he glanced towards the new-comers. The creature in front of him stretched out a hairy hand towards a club, and gripped it. Quest drew a long breath. His eyes were set hard.

"Drop that club," he ordered.

The creature suddenly sprang up. The club was waved around his head.

"Drop it," Quest repeated firmly. "You will sit down in your corner. You will take no more notice of us. Do you hear? You will drop the club. You will sit down in your corner. You will sleep."

The club slipped from the hairy fingers. The tense frame, which had been already crouched for the spring, was suddenly relaxed. The knees trembled.

"Back to that corner," Quest ordered, pointing.

Slowly and dejectedly, the ape-man crept to where he had been ordered and sat there with dull, non-comprehending stare. It was a new force, this, a note of which he had felt--the superman raising the voice of authority.

Quest touched his forehead and found it damp. The strain of those few seconds had been intolerable.

"I don't think these other animals will hurt," he said. "Let's have a look around the place."

The search took only a few moments. The monkeys ran and jumped around them, gibbering as though with pleasure. The leopard watched them always with a snarl and an evil light in his eye. They found nothing unusual until they came to the distant corner, where a huge piano box lay on its side with the opening turned to the wall.

"This is where the brute sleeps, I suppose," Quest remarked. "We'll turn it round, any way."

They dragged it a few feet away from the wall, so that the opening faced them. Then Lenora gave a little cry and Quest stood suddenly still.

"The skeleton!" Lenora shrieked. "It's the skeleton!"

Quest stooped down and drew away the matting which concealed some portion of this strange-looking object. It was a skeleton so old that the bones had turned to a dull grey. Yet so far as regards its limbs, it was almost complete. Quest glanced towards the hands.

"Little fingers both missing," he muttered. "That's the skeleton all right, Lenora."

"Remember the message!" she exclaimed. "'Where the skeleton is, the necklace may be also.'"

Quest nodded shortly.

"We'll search."

They turned over everything in the place fruitlessly. There was no sign of the necklace. At last they gave it up.

"You get outside, Lenora," Quest directed. "I'll just bring this beast round again and then we'll tackle the Professor."

Lenora stepped back into the fresh air with a little murmur of relief.

Quest turned towards the creature which crouched still huddled up in its corner, its eyes half-closed, rolling a little from side to side.

"Look at me," he ordered.

The creature obeyed. Once more its frame seemed to grow more virile and natural.

"You need sleep no longer," Quest said. "Wake up and be yourself."

The effect of his words was instantaneous. Almost as he spoke, the creature crouched for a spring. There was wild hatred in its close-set eyes, the snarl of something fiend-like in its contorted mouth. Quest slipped quickly through the door.

"Any one may have that for a pet!" he remarked grimly. "Come, Lenora, there's a word or two to be said to the Professor. There's something here will need a little explanation."

He lit a cigar as they struggled back along the path. Presently they reached the untidy-looking avenue, and a few minutes later arrived at the house. Quest looked around him in something like bewilderment.

"Say, fancy keeping a big place like this, all overgrown and like a wilderness!" he exclaimed. "If the Professor can't afford a few gardeners, why doesn't he take a comfortable flat down town."

"I think it's a horrible place," Lenora agreed. "I hope I never come here again."

"Pretty well obsessed, these scientific men get," Quest muttered. "I suppose this is the front door."

They pa.s.sed under the portico and knocked. There was no reply. Quest searched in vain for a bell. They walked round the piazza. There were no signs of any human life. The windows were curtainless and displayed vistas of rooms practically devoid of furniture. They came back to the front door. Quest tried the handle and found it open. They pa.s.sed into the hall.

"Hospitable sort of place, any way," he remarked. "We'll go in and wait, Lenora."

They found their way to the study, which seemed to be the only habitable room. Lenora glanced around at its strange contents with an expression almost of awe.

"Fancy a man living in a muddle like this!" she exclaimed. "Not a picture, scarcely a carpet, uncomfortable chairs--nothing but bones and skeletons and mummies and dried-up animals. A man with tastes like this, Mr. Quest, must have a very different outlook upon life from ordinary human beings."

Quest nodded.

"He generally has," he admitted. "Here comes our host, any way."

A small motor-car pa.s.sed the window, driven by Craig. The Professor descended. A moment or two later he entered the room. He gazed from Quest to Lenora at first in blank surprise. Then he held out his hands.

"You have good news for me, my friends!" he exclaimed. "I am sure of it.

How unfortunate that I was not at home to receive you! Tell me--don't keep me in suspense, if you please--you have discovered my skeleton?"

"We have found the skeleton," Quest announced.

For a single moment the new-comer stood as though turned to stone. There was a silence which was not without its curious dramatic significance.