The Sleuth of St. James Street | Page 6

portions of the andiron which were invisible to me. He did not move.
The steady light threw half of his face into shadow. But in the other
half every feature stood out sharply as in a delicate etching. It had that
refined sharpness and distinction which intense moments of stress
stamp on the human face. He did not move, and there was no sound.

"I have said, Excellency, that my angle of vision along the crevice of
the doorsill was sharply cut midway of this now enlarged fireplace.
From the direction and lift of the Master's face, he was watching
something above this line and directly over the pedestal of the andiron.
I watched, also, flattening my face against the sill, for the thing to
appear.
"And it did appear.
"A naked foot became slowly visible, as though some one were
descending with extreme care from the elevation of the andiron to the
great marble hearth, under this strange enlargement, now some distance
below."
The big Oriental paused, and looked down at me.
"I knew then, Excellency, that the Master was lost! The creative
energies of the Spirit suffer no division of worship; those of the body
must be wholly denied. I had warned the Master. And in travail,
Excellency, I turned over with my face to the floor.
"But there is always hope, hope over the certainties of experience, over
the certainties of knowledge. Perhaps the Master, even now, sustained
in the spirit, would put away the devocation . . . . No, Excellency, I was
not misled. I knew the Master was beyond hope! But the will to hope
moved me, and I turned back to the crevice at the doorsill."
He paused.
"There was now a delicate odor, everywhere, faintly, like the blossom
of the little bitter apple here in your country. The red embers in the
fireplace gave out a steady light; and in the glow of it, on the marble
hearth, stood the one who had descended from the elevation of the
andiron."
Again the man hesitated, as for an accurate method of expression.
"In the flesh, Excellency, there was color that would not appear in the

image. The hair was yellow, and the eyes were blue; and against the
black marble of the fireplace the body was conspicuously white. But in
every other aspect of her, Excellency, the woman was on the hearth in
the flesh as she is in the clutch of the savage male figure in the image.
"There is no dress or ornament, as you will recall, Excellency. Not even
an ear-jewel or an anklet, as though the graver of the image felt that the
inherent beauty of his figure could take nothing from these ostentations.
The woman's heavy yellow hair was wound around her head, as in the
image. She shivered a little, faintly, like a naked child in an
unaccustomed draught of air, although she stood on the warm marble
hearth and within the red glow of the fire.
"The voice from the male figure of the image, which I had brought the
Master, and which stood as the andiron, now so immensely enlarged,
was beginning again to speak. The thin metallic sounds seemed to
splinter against the dense silence, as it went forward in the ritual
prescribed.
"But the Master had already decided; he stood now on the great marble
hearth with his papers crushed together. And as I looked on, through
the crevice under the doorsill, he put out his free hand and with his
finger touched the woman gently. The flesh under his finger yielded,
and stooping over, he put the formulas into the fire."
Like one who has come to the end of his story, the huge Oriental
stopped. He remained for some moments silent. Then he continued in
an even, monotonous voice
"I got up from the floor then, and purified myself with water. And after
that I went into an upper chamber, opened the window to the east, and
sat down to write my report to the brotherhood. For the thing which I
had been sent to do was finished."
He put his hand somewhere into the loose folds of his Oriental garment
and brought out a roll of thin vellum like onion-skin, painted in
Chinese characters. It was of immense length, but on account of the
thinness of the vellum, the roll wound on a tiny cylinder of wood was

not above two inches in thickness.
"Excellency," he said, "I have carefully concealed this report through
the misfortunes that have attended me. It is not certain that I shall be
able to deliver it. Will you give it for me to the jewel merchant
Vanderdick, in Amsterdam? He will send it to Mahadal in Bombay,
and it will go north with the caravans."
His voice