SHORT STORY

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 349, 15 January 1903, Page 7

SHORT STORY

A* the physician, friend, and distant relative of the late Mies Marjory Sedgwick, I set down in narrative form a connected aeries of extracts from the documents she left in my care, believing each publication to be in accord with her wishes. I <?o this with some hesitation, sot being accustomed to write for the Eblie prints, while the tenets of my proaion point towards secrecy with regard to communications rather than the. reverse. Bat in what was doubtless the last note Miss Sedgwick wrote, ehe left thece letters in my care, with the injunction to use them should a biography of Professor Wallis Dent ever be written, so that the record of his final days upon earth might be given from hia own pen, In ca=e no biography appeared, sbe wished an edited selection from .Professor Dent's communications to be printed in some suitable magazine or review, and : thus, as it were, the material should be Fit in evidence for future use. So far a3 am aware the life of Professor Dsnt has never been written. It is probable that at the time of his death he w-s too young a man to have yet made his mark ia the - ■ u worM of scientific research, which doubt- - lesewtould have'been the case had he lived. Hi one book on the legends of Southern Italy shows great research in . the literary works of. the past, patient and' intelligent investigation of each antiquities as bore tpsn his subject, but the volume was. rather a promise of the future than a guarantee of lasting fame already acccmplished. Naturally to the woman who loved him, he had already attained the eminence which would ultimately have been his, but this flittering estimate is not shared by the more coldly critical scientific world.

MiBB Sedgwick was'a shy, retiring girl, who cared little for the social gaities of Hew York. She had paid several vieits to Europe, and her chief delight was travel and in reading, the books she preferred being mainly historical and geographical. I think, but am not sure, that it was on one of hex Italian journeyß she first met Professor Wallis Dent, a man some eight or nine years her senior. Be that as it may, Professor Dent was a guest at her father's house when he came to America a year before his death; and it was known to a few intimate friends that they were betrothed, although no public announcement of the engagement was ever made. Many of the sensational statements pat forth by the daily press o£ New York at the time of the first or- second tragedy were either inaccurate or misleading. It is not true that overstudy had impaired her intellect and weakened her body. It is not true that the suddenness with which the fact of her ~ lover's death was announced to her while she was reading a letter from him sent her- into uncontrollable frensy, and of course the detailed account of her suicide is only mythical, for the action' had no witnesses. The calamity which had overtaken Professor Dent might have been more tactfully broken to her, but nevertheless shere-

ceived the blow with that quiet calm which was habitual to her. Her father and herself were seated at the breakfast table. Half a dozen foreign postal cards from Professor Dent had come to her, and ■he had assorted them in their order, and was reading the first when her father, glancing over liia morning paper, with an exclamation of dismay, suddenly and unthinkingly blurted out the gist of a telegram that Professor Dent had been killec". S a/i turned pale to the lips, and sat there without a word, staring at her father who now tried to soften a stateobit which could not be mitigated. Sha asked in a low voice to see the newspaper, - and she read the cablegram as well as she could through the tears that, in spite of her marvellous self-control, welled into her eyes; then she arose and went to her room with' no exclamation that in* cheated mental derangement. That her mind undoubtedly became clcuded Ido not intend to deny, but in my opinion this w«b caused by the ever-recurring arrival of postal cards from her lover x which extended for a period of nearly fifteen days after she knew that he was no longer in life. . This ghastly correspondence, the more terrible because the Writing was in a tone of jubilant confidenee, with all the jocularity of youth, unfolded itself day by day like a serial story, the tragic .end of which is already known. Postal c mmunicatioa between Italy and America is tardy, a letter sometimes taking from eighteen to twenty days, coming by way of England or , France, or by direct steamer not much quicker, and thus the series was long drawn out, each missive a mental stab, not to be warded off. When I learned what was going on, I endeavoured to have the pcßtal cards intercepted, but she would not have it so, and fearing worse complications, if she were thwarted, I was reluctantly compelled to forego my prohibition. The day I was called in, her friends had become alarmed. The living writing appeared to have the effect of making her forget momentarily that the hand which penned it was dead, yet - somewhere in her troubled brain there. always floated the shadow of impending disaster, and flickering through the shadow like vivid forked lightning athwart a thunder cloud, spasmodic futile effort to avert the threatening danger. These alternating currents of powerful conflicting emotions, impinging on a sensitive mind, delicately poised, undoubtedly had the effect of overturning it, acting on the brain in a manner somewhat similar to that of 1,000 volt alternating current of electricity upon the body, but less . mercifully, because instant death was not the result. On the day I was summoned, a dozen postal cards had arrived and Marjory sat very quietly in her boudoir reading them, a lady companion being in the room with her, the same who a few weeks later accompanied her to Europe. Suddenly Mies Sedgwick sprang to her feet, the cards ~ fluttering like leaves to the ground. 'A w -telegraph office! Where is the telegraph office ? I must warn him!' she cried, and before the other could prevent bar, fled dishevelled into the street. There was instant panic in the household, but the girl returned of her own accord after a brief absence. The fact that even the swiftness of lightning could carry no

A Modern Fire.

warning m time, came to her before she had gone far. and the bopelessn ss of the situation brought her b»ck in unavailing tears. I was telephoned for, but was nelpless, for the one suggestion I did make, ab-mf; intercepting the postal cirds promised a return of the frenzy, and she w%BH)t m a state to be reasoned with. ttow bravo ia the man who writes a humorouß latter to a friend, for he cannot know in what grim circumstances it may arrive! The careless joking tone of many of these missives strikes me even now, in editing them, as yruesomely incongruous j like the fixsd grin of the skelelxm standing ia the corner of my room. At last taey ceased to come, and the eternal silence began. For a week or more there was an unexpressed fear-in the household that a belated card would fall in, but never came Marjory, herself, seemed to expect it. for when her letters arrived she tossed them over unheeding, and would look up, faying anxiously, 'ls there nothing else?'* Finally, she became silently melancholy, and from this state I could not be aroused. She gave no trouble to her friends, and was. perfectly, amenable to their suggestions, but evidently kept brooding over the event that had blighted her life, the tragedy being indelibly printed on her mind as an image is tatooed on the body b7 innumerable stinging pin pricks. When, some three months after the death of Wallia D-jat, she expressed a desire to go to Europe -the intimation was eageily agreed to by her father, who thought the sea voyage and the following change of scene would do her good, but I have grave doubts of this, for she wished to visit the arena of the tragedy,, and the thought of her suicide from the cliff where the professor had fallen, occurred to me. The worst came, but not exactly as I anticipated it. ble never saw the island of Capri. At Gibraltar, she alone of ail the passengers, refused to land, but stood leaning on the rail, gazing at the tall rock. During the voyage she had kept entirely to herself, ■ever speaking even to her companion, except when directly addressed. It was night when the steamer left Gibraltar frr Naples. The lady who was with h«r round her writing in their state room, and did not disturb her. That was the last ever seen of Marjory Sedgwick. There seem 3 no reason to doubt that she slipped quietly overboard, while the other passengers wers at dinner.

The fateful pack of cards left in my care were fifty-two in number. On some days the writer had sent as many as ten. None of them were dated except in so far' as the post mark was concerned, but they were numbered consecutively from one to fifty-one. The fifty-second card had evidently been prepared by Mis 3 Sedgwick herself. It was of the same size as the others, and on it was pasted the newsdaper extract announcing Professor Dent's death. I begin the narrative with that extract I have eliminated from the Professors writing nearly all that is humorous or not bearing on the story he has to telL, It is curious to note that in his very first message he gives a hint of the traffic that wkb the direct cause ef his death, although no suspicion of this seems ever to have occurred to him. At the end I shall add a note giving the resalt of my own investigations in Capri, which I think will afford an explanation of what waß a mystery-to him.

Naples, Dec. 13.—A. dispatch from the Associated Press confirms the report that Professor Dant, of Cambridge, England, wa* killed yesterday in Oapri. It was supposed that Professor Dent was making a geological examination of the southern cliffs of this island. The ropa by whioh .he let himself down the face of a precipice was severed by a sharp rock, and the unfortunate man fell a distance of nearly a thousand feet Death was instantaneous. ' I have arrived once more in lovely Capri, truly the isle of the Siren for me, as it was here I first met—but you remember—l shall rhapsodize on that in a later letter. This is a postcard and must be considered as such. I expected to come here by way of Malta, but the tramp steamer, erratic in its movements, sailed into Naples and will go to Malta later, ifaia was disastrous in so far as my calculations were concerned, for Malta is the cheapest and best island in the world where one may buy tobacco, while Capri is the dearest and worst. Thus my yearnings towards amateur smuggling were frustrated. I bought a few packets of their detestable thirty eentissima cigarettes in that low little shop under the arch just outside of tbepiazzi, and as I : lt 9 plaC6 aud dived infco th » tunnel of the Castighone Eoad, a ragged brigand followed m*, touched me on the arm and exhibited a packet of my favourite brand when we were deep in the gloom of the archway. The well remembered colour

gladdened my heart. I was willing to pay any price for it, and ask no questions. He seemed to have but one sample two ounce packet, but quickly guessing that he had-happaned en an unlimited market, he gave a low whistle which conjured out of the darkness a swarthy beauty of a girl, who gazed lowering at me; and produced packet after packet from her strange costume, which was the colour of the Capri cliffs. These people are evidently not natives of this island. The sullen sylph seemed deeply suspicious of me throughout the transaction, and appeared , to realize, its danger .move thoroughly than the man, who wa& too eager for the money to trouble hi 3 head about the risk we were all taking. You will think I am reckless t> set down evidence of my own complicity on three posteards; but they are unsigned, and the story is in sections. Besides no one here can read English. Postcards have been invented so long now that I imagine those through whose hands they pass have given up reading | them. I sing the praise of the postcard. ' While on tour all my correspondence iB accomplished by means of it; thus I folthe example of a celebrated statesman of my own l&ad. There is no searching for an envelope, no Bcaling or sticking on of a badly gac-med stamp. Tho postcard is a notable invention, cheap and always ready to cat the messenger boy. I doff my hat and s .lute it. Why am I here, you are perhaps wondering. I am hoping I may run to earth the «lusi7a legend of the Sirens. The Pern Grotto on the southern side of the is and is raputed ta have b jcn their homo, and a moat excellent marine outlook it ha?, situated like a lofty cathedral window in the cliff, high above the waves. The concave back of the grotto is most dmirably constructed for sending the

Sirenic voice far across the in waters, fact_ the place is ideal for the very purpose which legend assigns to it. Curiously enough, men's bones have been found here ingeniously fractured, aad I think I shall do some further excavating along the floor of this cavern. Who knows but I may come on a mummiefied siren ? What a find that would be!

'Since writing to yon last I have had an amazing experience, one that would have frightened these superstitious islanders out of their wits, had they known of it. Instead of a mummified siren J seem like to discover one as 'a going concern.' J had been taking some measurements in the Fern Grotto, when I heard faintly the sound of very sweet singing that seemed to come from above rather than from the inhabited plain below me. Of course sound is somewhat difficult to trace to its source, if the posk tion of that source is unknown. The song seemed to come to me round the chflv, fast are all but unscalable. I woiked my way round the face of the root in a position of some daneer, and with; every yard I made, the subtle tune became more distinct, appearing to float above and beyond me. The-southern sea was empty except for one boat, that was coming rapidly in, flung forward by four oars, for there was no wind., This coming craft heightened the illusion as if; these sturdy mariners—fishermen ne doubt—were being lured inward by the siren song. I raised a shout, ;and the melody instantlyceased. The siren had heard me although the boatmen could not. After a moment's pause the siren began again; but this, time in a high penetrating key, still' Bwest; a trilling lay that would carry far in this breathless air. Indeed the distant boatmen now appeared to hear, for their blades hung motionless in the water. At some peril to my precarious footing, pressing close against the cliff, I unslung my binocular and examined the craft. It was just as I suspected ; the four rovers stood still. A fifth man, with his foot on the prow, bent .forward with a "hand to his ear. The highly pitcbed tones continued, but they had not the ancient effect of enticing the mariners ashore. The man at the prow turned, appeared to give an order to his men, who drew in their oaraand began to fish. Aad now the singing had ceased and could not he revived by sheuting ci mine, or any imitations I attempted to give of the 1 weird melody; So- I scrambled back as well as I could. The siren evidently disdains competition, and well she may,,for I never heard anything st entrancing and uncanny as her mid air song, I shall make further research to-morrcw, but it will be from the tep of the cliff I think. (To be concluded next week.)