The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker (ebook and pdf reader .txt) đź“–
- Author: Bram Stoker
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surely want to have Father put to bed; and a proper bed will be better
for him than the sofa.” She then got a chair close beside her father,
and sat down watching him.
I went about the room, taking accurate note of all i saw. And truly
there were enough things in the room to evoke the curiosity of any man—
even though the attendant circumstances were less strange. The whole
place, excepting those articles of furniture necessary to a
well-furnished bedroom, was filled with magnificent curios, chiefly
Egyptian. As the room was of immense size there was opportunity for the
placing of a large number of them, even if, as with these, they were of
huge proportions.
Whilst I was still investigating the room there came the sound of wheels
on the gravel outside the house. There was a ring at the hall door, and
a few minutes later, after a preliminary tap at the door and an
answering “Come in!” Doctor Winchester entered, followed by a young
woman in the dark dress of a nurse.
“I have been fortunate!” he said as he came in. “I found her at once
and free. Miss Trelawny, this is Nurse Kennedy!”
I was struck by the way the two young women looked at each other. I
suppose I have been so much in the habit of weighing up in my own mind
the personality of witnesses and of forming judgment by their
unconscious action and mode of bearing themselves, that the habit
extends to my life outside as well as within the court-house. At this
moment of my life anything that interested Miss Trelawny interested me;
and as she had been struck by the newcomer I instinctively weighed her
up also. By comparison of the two I seemed somehow to gain a new
knowledge of Miss Trelawny. Certainly, the two women made a good
contrast. Miss Trelawny was of fine figure; dark, straight-featured.
She had marvellous eyes; great, wide-open, and as black and soft as
velvet, with a mysterious depth. To look in them was like gazing at a
black mirror such as Doctor Dee used in his wizard rites. I heard an
old gentleman at the picnic, a great oriental traveller, describe the
effect of her eyes “as looking at night at the great distant lamps of a
mosque through the open door.” The eyebrows were typical. Finely
arched and rich in long curling hair, they seemed like the proper
architectural environment of the deep, splendid eyes. Her hair was
black also, but was as fine as silk. Generally black hair is a type of
animal strength and seems as if some strong expression of the forces of
a strong nature; but in this case there could be no such thought. There
were refinement and high breeding; and though there was no suggestion of
weakness, any sense of power there was, was rather spiritual than
animal. The whole harmony of her being seemed complete. Carriage,
figure, hair, eyes; the mobile, full mouth, whose scarlet lips and white
teeth seemed to light up the lower part of the face—as the eyes did the
upper; the wide sweep of the jaw from chin to ear; the long, fine
fingers; the hand which seemed to move from the wrist as though it had a
sentience of its own. All these perfections went to make up a
personality that dominated either by its grace, its sweetness, its
beauty, or its charm.
Nurse Kennedy, on the other hand, was rather under than over a woman’s
average height. She was firm and thickset, with full limbs and broad,
strong, capable hands. Her colour was in the general effect that of an
autumn leaf. The yellow-brown hair was thick and long, and the
golden-brown eyes sparkled from the freckled, sunburnt skin. Her rosy
cheeks gave a general idea of rich brown. The red lips and white teeth
did not alter the colour scheme, but only emphasized it. She had a snub
nose—there was no possible doubt about it; but like such noses in
general it showed a nature generous, untiring, and full of good-nature.
Her broad white forehead, which even the freckles had spared, was full
of forceful thought and reason.
Doctor Winchester had on their journey from the hospital, coached her in
the necessary particulars, and without a word she took charge of the
patient and set to work. Having examined the new-made bed and shaken
the pillows, she spoke to the Doctor, who gave instructions; presently
we all four, stepping together, lifted the unconscious man from the
sofa.
Early in the afternoon, when Sergeant Daw had returned, I called at my
rooms in Jermyn Street, and sent out such clothes, books and papers as I
should be likely to want within a few days. Then I went on to keep my
legal engagements.
The Court sat late that day as an important case was ending; it was
striking six as I drove in at the gate of the Kensington Palace Road. I
found myself installed in a large room close to the sick chamber.
That night we were not yet regularly organised for watching, so that the
early part of the evening showed an unevenly balanced guard. Nurse
Kennedy, who had been on duty all day, was lying down, as she had
arranged to come on again by twelve o’clock. Doctor Winchester, who was
dining in the house, remained in the room until dinner was announced;
and went back at once when it was over. During dinner Mrs. Grant
remained in the room, and with her Sergeant Daw, who wished to complete
a minute examination which he had undertaken of everything in the room
and near it. At nine o’clock Miss Trelawny and I went in to relieve the
Doctor. She had lain down for a few hours in the afternoon so as to be
refreshed for her work at night. She told me that she had determined
that for this night at least she would sit up and watch. I did not try
to dissuade her, for I knew that her mind was made up. Then and there I
made up my mind that I would watch with her—unless, of course, I should
see that she really did not wish it. I said nothing of my intentions
for the present. We came in on tiptoe, so silently that the Doctor, who
was bending over the bed, did not hear us, and seemed a little startled
when suddenly looking up he saw our eyes upon him. I felt that the
mystery of the whole thing was getting on his nerves, as it had already
got on the nerves of some others of us. He was, I fancied, a little
annoyed with himself for having been so startled, and at once began to
talk in a hurried manner as though to get over our idea of his
embarrassment:
“I am really and absolutely at my wits” end to find any fit cause for
this stupor. I have made again as accurate an examination as I know
how, and I am satisfied that there is no injury to the brain, that is,
no external injury. Indeed, all his vital organs seem unimpaired. I
have given him, as you know, food several times and it has manifestly
done him good. His breathing is strong and regular, and his pulse is
slower and stronger than it was this morning. I cannot find evidence of
any known drug, and his unconsciousness does not resemble any of the
many cases of hypnotic sleep which I saw in the Charcot Hospital in
Paris. And as to these wounds”—he laid his finger gently on the
bandaged wrist which lay outside the coverlet as he spoke, “I do not
know what to make of them. They might have been made by a
carding-machine; but that supposition is untenable. It is within the
bounds of possibility that they might have been made by a wild animal if
it had taken care to sharpen its claws. That too is, I take it,
impossible. By the way, have you any strange pets here in the house;
anything of an exceptional kind, such as a tiger-cat or anything out of
the common?” Miss Trelawny smiled a sad smile which made my heart ache,
as she made answer:
“Oh no! Father does not like animals about the house, unless they are
dead and mummied.” This was said with a touch of bitterness—or
jealousy, I could hardly tell which. “Even my poor kitten was only
allowed in the house on sufferance; and though he is the dearest and
best-conducted cat in the world, he is now on a sort of parole, and is
not allowed into this room.”
As she was speaking a faint rattling of the door handle was heard.
Instantly Miss Trelawny’s face brightened. She sprang up and went over
to the door, saying as she went:
“There he is! That is my Silvio. He stands on his hind legs and
rattles the door handle when he wants to come into a room.” She opened
the door, speaking to the cat as though he were a baby: “Did him want
his movver? Come then; but he must stay with her!” She lifted the cat,
and came back with him in her arms. He was certainly a magnificent
animal. A chinchilla grey Persian with long silky hair; a really lordly
animal with a haughty bearing despite his gentleness; and with great
paws which spread out as he placed them on the ground. Whilst she was
fondling him, he suddenly gave a wriggle like an eel and slipped out of
her arms. He ran across the room and stood opposite a low table on
which stood the mummy of an animal, and began to mew and snarl. Miss
Trelawny was after him in an instant and lifted him in her arms, kicking
and struggling and wriggling to get away; but not biting or scratching,
for evidently he loved his beautiful mistress. He ceased to make a
noise the moment he was in her arms; in a whisper she admonished him:
“O you naughty Silvio! You have broken your parole that mother gave for
you. Now, say goodnight to the gentlemen, and come away to mother’s
room!” As she was speaking she held out the cat’s paw to me to shake.
As I did so I could not but admire its size and beauty. “Why,” said I,
“his paw seems like a little boxing-glove full of claws.” She smiled:
“So it ought to. Don’t you notice that my Silvio has seven toes, see!”
she opened the paw; and surely enough there were seven separate claws,
each of them sheathed in a delicate, fine, shell-like case. As I gently
stroked the foot the claws emerged and one of them accidentally—there
was no anger now and the cat was purring—stuck into my hand.
Instinctively I said as I drew back:
“Why, his claws are like razors!”
Doctor Winchester had come close to us and was bending over looking at
the cat’s claws; as I spoke he said in a quick, sharp way:
“Eh!” I could hear the quick intake of his breath. Whilst I was
stroking the now quiescent cat, the Doctor went to the table and tore
off a piece of blotting-paper from the writing-pad and came back. He
laid the paper on his palm and, with a simple “pardon me!” to Miss
Trelawny, placed the cat’s paw on it and pressed it down with his other
hand. The haughty cat seemed to resent somewhat the familiarity, and
tried to draw its foot away. This was plainly what the Doctor wanted,
for in the act the cat opened the sheaths of its claws and and made
several reefs in the soft paper. Then Miss Trelawny took
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