Bat-Wing Read Online Free PDF

them now for a secret purpose of his own?"
    "Exactly."
    "It renders the case none the less interesting."
    "I quite agree, Knox. With you, I believe, that even if the Colonel is
not quite sane, at the same time his fears are by no means imaginary."
    He gingerly took up the bat wing from the arm of his chair where he had
placed it after a detailed examination.
    "It seems to be pretty certain," he said, "that this thing is the wing
of a Desmodus or Vampire Bat. Now, according to our authority"—he
touched a work which lay open on the other arm of his chair—"these are
natives of tropical America, therefore the presence of a living vampire
bat in Surrey is not to be anticipated. I am personally satisfied,
however, that this unpleasant fragment has been preserved in some way."
    "You mean that it is part of a specimen from someone's collection?"
    "Quite possibly. But even a collection of such bats would be quite a
novelty. I don't know that I can recollect one outside the Museums. To
follow this bat wing business further: there was one very curious point
in the Colonel's narrative. You recollect his reference to a native
girl who had betrayed certain information to the manager of the
estate?"
    I nodded rapidly.
    "A bat wing was affixed to the wall of her hut and she died, according
to our informant, of a lingering sickness. Now this lingering sickness
might have been anæmia, and anæmia may be induced, either in man or
beast, by frequent but unsuspected visits of a Vampire Bat."
    "Good heavens, Harley!" I exclaimed, "what a horrible idea."
    "It
is
a horrible idea, but in countries infested by these creatures
such things happen occasionally. I distinctly recollect a story which I
once heard, of a little girl in some district of tropical America
falling into such a decline, from which she was only rescued in
the nick of time by the discovery that one of these Vampire Bats, a
particularly large one, had formed the habit of flying into her room at
night and attaching itself to her bare arm which lay outside the
coverlet."
    "How did it penetrate the mosquito curtains?" I enquired, incredulously.
    "The very point, Knox, which led to the discovery of the truth. The
thing, exhibiting a sort of uncanny intelligence, used to work its
way up under the edge of the netting. This disturbance of the curtains
was noticed on several occasions by the nurse who occupied an
adjoining room, and finally led to the detection of the bat!"
    "But surely," I said, "such a visitation would awaken any sleeper?"
    "On the contrary, it induces deeper sleep. But I have not yet come to
my point, Knox. The vengeance of the High Priest of Voodoo, who figured
in the Colonel's narrative, was characteristic in the case of the
native woman, since her symptoms at least simulated those which would
result from the visits of a Vampire Bat, although of course they may
have been due to a slow poison. But you will not have failed to note
that the several attacks upon the Colonel personally were made with
more ordinary weapons. On two occasions at least a rifle was employed."
    "Yes," I replied, slowly. "You are wondering why the lingering sickness
did not visit him?"
    "I am, Knox. I can only suppose that he proved to be immune. You recall
his statement that he made an almost miraculous recovery from the fever
which attacked him after his visit to the Black Belt? This would seem
to point to the fact that he possesses that rare type of constitution
which almost defies organisms deadly to ordinary men."
    "I see. Hence the dagger and the rifle?"
    "So it would appear."
    "But, Harley," I cried, "what appalling crime can the man have
committed to call down upon his head a vengeance which has survived
for so many years?"
    Paul Harley shrugged his shoulders in a whimsical imitation of the
Spaniard.
    "I doubt if the feud dates any earlier," he replied, "than the time of
Menendez's last return to Cuba. On that occasion he evidently killed
the High Priest of Voodoo."
    I uttered an