The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker (books to read in your 20s TXT) 📕

seized her in my arms and rushed

over to the door, threw it open, and strode into the passage, calling

loudly:

 

“Help! Help!”

 

In an instant the two Detectives, Mrs. Grant, and the Nurse appeared on

the scene. Close on their heels came several of the servants, both men

and women. Immediately Mrs. Grant came near enough, I placed Miss

Trelawny in her arms, and rushed back into the room, turning up the

electric light as soon as I could lay my hand on it. Sergeant Daw and

the Nurse followed me.

 

We were just in time. Close under the great safe, where on the two

succesive nights he had been found, lay Mr. Trelawny with his left arm,

bare save for the bandages, stretched out. Close by his side was a

leaf-shaped Egyptian knife which had lain amongst the curios on the

shelf of the broken cabinet. Its point was stuck in the parquet floor,

whence had been removed the bloodstained rug.

 

But there was no sign of disturbance anywhere; nor any sign of any one

or anything unusual. The Policemen and I searched the room accurately,

whilst the Nurse and two of the servants lifted the wounded man back to

bed; but no sign or clue could we get. Very soon Miss Trelawny returned

to the room. She was pale but collected. When she came close to me she

said in a low voice:

 

“I felt myself fainting. I did not know why; but I was afraid!”

 

The only other shock I had was when Miss Trelawny cried out to me, as I

placed my hand on the bed to lean over and look carefully at her father:

 

“You are wounded. Look! look! your hand is bloody. There is blood on

the sheets!” I had, in the excitement, quite forgotten Silvio’s scratch.

As I looked at it, the recollection came back to me; but before I could

say a word Miss Trelawny had caught hold of my hand and lifted it up.

When she saw the parallel lines of the cuts she cried out again:

 

“It is the same wound as Father’s!” Then she laid my hand down gently

but quickly, and said to me and to Sergeant Daw:

 

“Come to my room! Silvio is there in his basket.” We followed her, and

found Silvio sitting in his basket awake. He was licking his paws. The

Detective said:

 

“He is there sure enough; but why licking his paws?”

 

Margaret—Miss Trelawny—gave a moan as she bent over and took one of

the forepaws in her hand; but the cat seemed to resent it and snarled.

At that Mrs. Grant came into the room. When she saw that we were

looking at the cat she said:

 

“The Nurse tells me that Silvio was asleep on Nurse Kennedy’s bed ever

since you went to your Father’s room until a while ago. He came there

just after you had gone to master’s room. Nurse says that Nurse Kennedy

is moaning and muttering in her sleep as though she had a nightmare. I

think we should send for Dr. Winchester.”

 

“Do so at once, please!” said Miss Trelawny; and we went back to the

room.

 

For a while Miss Trelawny stood looking at her father, with her brows

wrinkled. Then, turning to me, as though her mind were made up, she

said:

 

“Don’t you think we should have a consultation on Father? Of course I

have every confidence in Doctor Winchester; he seems an immensely clever

young man. But he is a young man; and there must be men who have

devoted themselves to this branch of science. Such a man would have

more knowledge and more experience; and his knowledge and experience

might help to throw light on poor Father’s case. As it is, Doctor

Winchester seems to be quite in the dark. Oh! I don’t know what to do.

It is all so terrible!” Here she broke down a little and cried; and I

tried to comfort her.

 

Doctor Winchester arrived quickly. His first thought was for his

patient; but when he found him without further harm, he visited Nurse

Kennedy. When he saw her, a hopeful look came into his eyes. Taking a

towel, he dipped a corner of it in cold water and flicked on the face.

The skin coloured, and she stirred slightly. He said to the new nurse—

Sister Doris he called her:

 

“She is all right. She will wake in a few hours at latest. She may be

dizzy and distraught at first, or perhaps hysterical. If so, you know

how to treat her.”

 

“Yes, sir!” answered Sister Doris demurely; and we went back to Mr.

Trelawny’s room. As soon as we had entered, Mrs. Grant and the Nurse

went out so that only Doctor Winchester, Miss Trelawny, and myself

remained in the room. When the door had been closed Doctor Winchester

asked me as to what had occurred. I told him fully, giving exactly

every detail so far as I could remember. Throughout my narrative, which

did not take long, however, he kept asking me questions as to who had

been present and the order in which each one had come into the room. He

asked other things, but nothing of any importance; these were all that

took my attention, or remained in my memory. When our conversation was

finished, he said in a very decided way indeed, to Miss Trelawny:

 

“I think, Miss Trelawny, that we had better have a consultation on this

case.” She answered at once, seemingly a little to his surprise:

 

“I am glad you have mentioned it. I quite agree. Who would you

suggest?”

 

“Have you any choice yourself?” he asked. “Any one to whom your Father

is known? Has he ever consulted any one?”

 

“Not to my knowledge. But I hope you will choose whoever you think

would be best. My dear Father should have all the help that can be had;

and I shall be deeply obliged by your choosing. Who is the best man in

London—anywhere else—in such a case?”

 

“There are several good men; but they are scattered all over the world.

Somehow, the brain specialist is born, not made; though a lot of hard

work goes to the completing of him and fitting him for his work. He

comes from no country. The most daring investigator up to the present

is Chiuni, the Japanese; but he is rather a surgical experimentalist

than a practitioner. Then there is Zammerfest of Uppsala, and Fenelon

of the University of Paris, and Morfessi of Naples. These, of course,

are in addition to our own men, Morrison of Aberdeen and Richardson of

Birmingham. But before them all I would put Frere of King’s College. Of

all that I have named he best unites theory and practice. He has no

hobbies—that have been discovered at all events; and his experience is

immense. It is the regret of all of us who admire him that the nerve so

firm and the hand so dexterous must yield to time. For my own part I

would rather have Frere than any one living.”

 

“Then,” said Miss Trelawny decisively, “let us have Doctor Frere—by the

way, is he ‘Doctor’ or ‘Mister’?—as early as we can get him in the

morning!”

 

A weight seemed removed from him, and he spoke with greater ease and

geniality than he had yet shown:

 

“He is Sir James Frere. I shall go to him myself as early as it is

possibly to see him, and shall ask him to come here at once.” Then

turning to me he said:

 

“You had better let me dress your hand.”

 

“It is nothing,” I said.

 

“Nevertheless it should be seen to. A scratch from any animal might

turn out dangerous; there is nothing like being safe.” I submitted;

forthwith he began to dress my hand. He examined with a

magnifying-glass the several parallel wounds, and compared them with the

slip of blotting-paper, marked with Silvio’s claws, which he took from

his pocket-book. He put back the paper, simply remarking:

 

“It’s a pity that Silvio slips in—and out—just when he shouldn’t.”

 

The morning wore slowly on. By ten o’clock Nurse Kennedy had so far

recovered that she was able to sit up and talk intelligibly. But she

was still hazy in her thoughts; and could not remember anything that had

happened on the previous night, after her taking her place by the

sick-bed. As yet she seemed neither to know nor care what had happened.

 

It was nearly eleven o’clock when Doctor Winchester returned with Sir

James Frere. Somehow I felt my heart sink when from the landing I saw

them in the hall below; I knew that Miss Trelawny was to have the pain

of telling yet another stranger of her ignorance of her father’s life.

 

Sir James Frere was a man who commanded attention followed by respect.

He knew so thoroughly what he wanted himself, that he placed at once on

one side all wishes and ideas of less definite persons. The mere flash

of his piercing eyes, or the set of his resolute mouth, or the lowering

of his great eyebrows, seemed to compel immediate and willing obedience

to his wishes. Somehow, when we had all been introduced and he was well

amongst us, all sense of mystery seemed to melt away. It was with a

hopeful spirit that I saw him pass into the sick-room with Doctor

Winchester.

 

They remained in the room a long time; once they sent for the Nurse, the

new one, Sister Doris, but she did not remain long. Again they both

went into Nurse Kennedy’s room. He sent out the nurse attendant on her.

Doctor Winchester told me afterward that Nurse Kennedy, though she was

ignorant of later matters, gave full and satisfactory answers to all

Doctor Frere’s questions relating to her patient up to the time she

became unconscious. Then they went to the study, where they remained so

long, and their voices raised in heated discussion seemed in such

determined opposition, that I began to feel uneasy. As for Miss

Trelawny, she was almost in a state of collapse from nervousness before

they joined us. Poor girl! she had had a sadly anxious time of it, and

her nervous strength had almost broken down.

 

They came out at last, Sir James first, his grave face looking as

unenlightening as that of the sphinx. Doctor Winchester followed him

closely; his face was pale, but with that kind of pallor which looked

like a reaction. It gave me the idea that it had been red not long

before. Sir James asked that Miss Trelawny would come into the study.

He suggested that I should come also. When we had enterd, Sir James

turned to me and said:

 

“I understand from Doctor Winchester that you are a friend of Miss

Trelawny, and that you have already considerable knowledge of this case.

Perhaps it will be well that you should be with us. I know you already

as a keen lawyer, Mr. Ross, though I never had the pleasure of meeting

you. As Doctor Winchester tells me that there are some strange matters

outside this case which seem to puzzle him—and others—and in which he

thinks you may yet be specially interested, it might be as well that you

should know every phase of the case. For myself I do not take much

account of mysteries—except those of science; and as there seems to be

some idea of an attempt at assassination or robbery, all I can say is

that if assassins were at work they ought to take some elementary

lessons in anatomy before their next job, for they seem thoroughly

ignorant. If robbery were their purpose, they seem to