Tales of Terror Mystery | Page 3

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Tales of Terror and Mystery By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Contents
Tales of Terror
The Horror of the Heights The Leather Funnel The New Catacomb The
Case of Lady Sannox The Terror of Blue John Gap The Brazilian Cat
Tales of Mystery

The Lost Special The Beetle-Hunter The Man with the Watches The
Japanned Box The Black Doctor The Jew's Breastplate

Tales of Terror
The Horror of the Heights
The idea that the extraordinary narrative which has been called the
Joyce-Armstrong Fragment is an elaborate practical joke evolved by
some unknown person, cursed by a perverted and sinister sense of
humour, has now been abandoned by all who have examined the matter.
The most macabre and imaginative of plotters would hesitate before
linking his morbid fancies with the unquestioned and tragic facts which
reinforce the statement. Though the assertions contained in it are
amazing and even monstrous, it is none the less forcing itself upon the
general intelligence that they are true, and that we must readjust our
ideas to the new situation. This world of ours appears to be separated
by a slight and precarious margin of safety from a most singular and
unexpected danger. I will endeavour in this narrative, which reproduces
the original document in its necessarily somewhat fragmentary form, to
lay before the reader the whole of the facts up to date, prefacing my
statement by saying that, if there be any who doubt the narrative of
Joyce-Armstrong, there can be no question at all as to the facts
concerning Lieutenant Myrtle, R. N., and Mr. Hay Connor, who
undoubtedly met their end in the manner described.
The Joyce-Armstrong Fragment was found in the field which is called
Lower Haycock, lying one mile to the westward of the village of
Withyham, upon the Kent and Sussex border. It was on the 15th
September last that an agricultural labourer, James Flynn, in the
employment of Mathew Dodd, farmer, of the Chauntry Farm,
Withyham, perceived a briar pipe lying near the footpath which skirts
the hedge in Lower Haycock. A few paces farther on he picked up a
pair of broken binocular glasses. Finally, among some nettles in the
ditch, he caught sight of a flat, canvas-backed book, which proved to be
a note-book with detachable leaves, some of which had come loose and

were fluttering along the base of the hedge. These he collected, but
some, including the first, were never recovered, and leave a deplorable
hiatus in this all-important statement. The note-book was taken by the
labourer to his master, who in turn showed it to Dr. J. H. Atherton, of
Hartfield. This gentleman at once recognized the need for an expert
examination, and the manuscript was forwarded to the Aero Club in
London, where it now lies.
The first two pages of the manuscript are missing. There is also one
torn away at the end of the narrative, though none of these affect the
general coherence of the story. It is conjectured that the missing
opening is concerned with the record of Mr. Joyce- Armstrong's
qualifications as an aeronaut, which can be gathered from other sources
and are admitted to be unsurpassed among the air-pilots of England.
For many years he has been looked upon as among the most daring and
the most intellectual of flying men, a combination which has enabled
him to both invent and test several new devices, including the common
gyroscopic attachment which is known by his name. The main body of
the manuscript is written neatly in ink, but the last few lines are in
pencil and are so ragged as to be hardly legible--exactly, in fact, as they
might be expected to appear if they were scribbled off hurriedly from
the seat of a moving aeroplane. There are, it may be added, several
stains, both on the last page and on the outside cover which have been