The Gloved Hand | Page 3

it best not to distract his
attention from the street before us, and restrained the question which
rose to my lips.
At last, the built-up portion of the town was left behind; we passed little
houses in little yards, then meadows and gardens and strips of
woodland, with a house only here and there. We were no longer on a
paved street, but on a macadam road--a road apparently little used, for
our lamps, sending long streamers of light ahead of us, disclosed far
empty stretches, without vehicle of any kind. There was no moon, and

the stars were half-obscured by a haze of cloud, while along the horizon
to the west, I caught the occasional glow of distant lightning.
And then the sky was suddenly blotted out, and I saw that we were
running along an avenue of lofty trees. The road at the left was
bordered by a high stone wall, evidently the boundary of an important
estate. We were soon past this, and I felt the speed of the car slacken.
"Hold tight!" said Godfrey, turned sharply through an open gateway,
and brought the car to a stop. Then, snatching out his watch, he leaned
forward and held it in the glare of the side-lamp. "Five minutes to
twelve," he said. "We can just make it. Come on, Lester."
He sprang from the car, and I followed, realising that this was no time
for questions.
"This way," he said, and held out a hand to me, or I should have lost
him in the darkness. We were in a grove of lofty trees, and at the foot
of one of these, Godfrey paused. "Up with, you," he added; "and don't
lose any time," and he placed my hand upon the rung of a ladder.
Too amazed to open my lips, I obeyed. The ladder was a long one, and,
as I went up and up, I could feel Godfrey mounting after me. I am not
expert at climbing ladders, even by daylight, and my progress was not
rapid enough to suit my companion, for he kept urging me on. But at
last, with a breath of relief, I felt that I had reached the top.
"What now?" I asked.
"Do you see that big straight limb running out to your right?"
"Yes," I said, for my eyes were growing accustomed to the darkness.
"Sit down on it, and hold on to the ladder."
I did so somewhat gingerly, and in a minute Godfrey was beside me.
"Now," he said, in a voice low and tense with excitement, "look out,
straight ahead. And remember to hold on to the ladder."

I could see the hazy mist of the open sky, and from the fitful light along
the horizon, I knew that we were looking toward the west. Below me
was a mass of confused shadows, which I took for clumps of
shrubbery.
Then I felt Godfrey's hand close upon my arm.
"Look!" he said.
For an instant, I saw nothing; then my eyes caught what seemed to be a
new star in the heavens; a star bright, sharp, steel blue--
"Why, it's moving!" I cried.
He answered with a pressure of the fingers.
The star was indeed moving; not rising, not drifting with the breeze, but
descending, descending slowly, slowly.... I watched it with parted lips,
leaning forward, my eyes straining at that falling light.
"Falling" is not the word; nor is "drifting." It did not fall and it did not
drift. It deliberately descended, in a straight line, at a regular speed,
calmly and evenly, as though animated by some definite purpose.
Lower and lower it sank; then it seemed to pause, to hover in the air,
and the next instant it burst into a shower of sparks and vanished.
And those sparks fell upon the shoulders of two white-robed figures,
standing apparently in space, their arms rigidly extended, their faces
raised toward the heavens.


CHAPTER II
A STRANGE NEIGHBOUR
Mechanically I followed Godfrey down the ladder, and, guided by the

flaring lights, made my way back to the car. I climbed silently into my
seat, while Godfrey started the motor. Then we rolled slowly up the
driveway, and stopped before the door of a house standing deep among
the trees.
"Wait for me here a minute," Godfrey said, and, when I had got out,
handed me my suit-case, and then drove the car on past the house, no
doubt to its garage.
He was soon back, opened the house-door, switched on the lights, and
waved me in.
"Here we are," he said. "I'll show you your room," and he led the way
up the stairs, opening a door in the hall at the top. "This is it," he added,
and switched on the lights here also. "The