The Mystery of Cloomber

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Mystery of Cloomber, The

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Title: The Mystery of Cloomber
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7964] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 6, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MYSTERY OF CLOOMBER ***

Produced by Lionel G. Sear

THE MYSTERY OF CLOOMBER
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

CONTENTS
I THE HEGIRA OF THE WESTS FROM EDINBURGH
II OF THE STARNGE MANNER IN WHICH A TENANT CAME TO CLOOMBER
III OF OUR FURTHER ACQUAINTANCE WITH MAJOR-GENERAL J. B. HEATHERSTONE
IV OF A YOUNG MAN WITH A GREY HEAD
V HOW FOUR OF US CAME TO BE UNDER THE SHADOW OF CLOOMBER
VI HOW I CAME TO BE ENLISTED AS ONE OF THE GARRISON OF CLOOMBER
VII OF CORPORAL RUFUS SMITH AND HIS COMING TO CLOOMBER
VIII STATEMENT OF ISRAEL STAKES
IX NARRATIVE OF JOHN EASTERLING, F.R.C.P. EDIN.
X OF THE LETTER WHICH CAME FROM THE HALL
XI OF THE CASTING AWAY OF THE BARQUE "BELINDA"
XII OF THE THREE FOREIGN MEN UPON THE COAST
XIII IN WHICH I SEE THAT WHICH HAS BEEN SEEN BY FEW
XIV OF THE VISITOR WHO RAN DOWN THE ROAD IN THE NIGHT-TIME
XV THE DAY-BOOK OF JOHN BERTHIER HEATHERSTONE
XVI AT THE HOLE OF CREE

CHAPTER I

THE HEGIRA OF THE WESTS FROM EDINBURGH
I John Fothergill West, student of law in the University of St. Andrews, have endeavoured in the ensuing pages to lay my statement before the public in a concise and business-like fashion.
It is not my wish to achieve literary success, nor have I any desire by the graces of my style, or by the artistic ordering of my incidents, to throw a deeper shadow over the strange passages of which I shall have to speak. My highest ambition is that those who know something of the matter should, after reading my account, be able to conscientiously indorse it without finding a single paragraph in which I have either added to or detracted from the truth.
Should I attain this result, I shall rest amply satisfied with the outcome of my first, and probably my last, venture in literature.
It was my intention to write out the sequence of events in due order, depending on trustworthy hearsay when I was describing that which was beyond my own personal knowledge. I have now, however, through the kind cooperation of friends, hit upon a plan which promises to be less onerous to me and more satisfactory to the reader. This is nothing less than to make use of the various manuscripts which I have by me bearing upon the subject, and to add to them the first-hand evidence contributed by those who had the best opportunities of knowing Major-General J. B. Heatherstone.
In pursuance of this design I shall lay before the public the testimony of Israel Stakes, formerly coachman at Cloomber Hall, and of John Easterling, F.R.C.P. Edin., now practising at Stranraer, in Wigtownshire. To these I shall add a verbatim account extracted from the journal of the late John Berthier Heatherstone, of the events which occurred in the Thul Valley in the autumn of '41 towards the end of the first Afghan War, with a description of the skirmish in the Terada defile, and of the death of the man Ghoolab Shah.
To myself I reserve the duty of filling up all the gaps and chinks which may be left in the narrative. By this arrangement I have sunk from the position of an author to that of a compiler, but on the other hand my work has ceased to be a story and has expanded into a series of affidavits.
My Father, John Hunter West, was a well known Oriental and Sanskrit scholar, and his name is still of weight with those who are interested in such matters. He it was who first after Sir William Jones called attention to the great value of early Persian literature, and his translations from the Hafiz and from