The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1912-12-27
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make 1t, indeed, uncommouly perplex.
ing"
fear my Imagination was sluggish.
Although, in spite Of his dissemblance.
saw that he was strangely moved by
these happenings, | could fancy no
very terrifying concomitants Of the
rather commonplace facts he had mar
rated. For anonymous letters l had
ever held scant respect. An ambushed
enemy, argued, Is admittedly a cow
ard. And 80 | was in danger of grow
ing impatient.
When the second letter came" he
continued, bringing his left hand for
ward to join his right on the dazzling
white ground Of the tables damask, Il
searched among the circulars for the
first, and found it. | want you to see
them both. The writing Is very curl
ous-1 have never seen anything just
like it-and the signature, if | may call
it that, is still more singular. On the
first letter, I took 1t for a blot. But
on the second letter occurs the same
black blur or smudge Of Identical out
line"
OF course | thought Of the Black
Hand. 1t was the natural %corollary,
seeing that the newspapers had been
giving US a surfeit of Black Hand
threats and Black Hand o%utrages. But,
somehow, | did not dare to voice it,
To have suggested anything so ordi-
nary to Cameron In his present mood
would have been to offer him offense.
And when, at the next moment, he
drew from an inner pocket of his eve
ming coat two thin, wax-like sheets Of
paper and passed them to me, | was
GLAD that | had kept silence. For the
letters were no rough, rude sCrawls
Of an illiterate Malta or CamOrra. In
p~hraseology as well as in penman
ship they were impressively unique.
III you don't mind" Cameron was
saying, you might read them aloud"
He rose and switched on a group Of
electric wall lights at my back, and !
marked for the hundredth time his
physiQue-his towering height, his
powerful shoulders. his leanness of
hip and sturdy straightness Of limb.
He did not look the forty years to
which he confessed.
One OF the long French windows
which gave upon the terrace stood
ajar, and before resuming his seat
Cameron paused to close it, dropping
over it the looped curtains Of silver
gray velvet that matched the walls.
In the succeeding moment the room
was ghostly silent; and then, breaking
against the stiffness, was the sound Of
my voice, reading:
THAT which you have wrought shall
in turn BE wrought upon you. Take
warning therefore Of what shall hap
pen on the seventh day hence. Az
sun follows sun, so follows all that is
decreed. The ways Of our God are
many. On the righteous he showers
blessings; on the evil he pours
misery"
That was the first letter. The sec
ond began with the anne sentence:
THAT which you have wrought shall!
in turn be wrought upon you"
but there, though the similarity Of
tenor continued. the verbal identity
ceased. 1t went on:
Once more, as earnest Of what is
decreed, there will be shown unto you
a symbol of our power. Precaution
cannot avail. Fine words and a smil-
ing countenance make not virtue
And beneath each letter was the
strange silhouette which Cameron
had mentioned.
1t is difficult for me to convey the
most meager idea of the emotional In.
iuence which these two brief con-
munications exerted. They seemed to
breathe a grim spirit of implacable
Nemesis far in excess of anything to
be found in the euphemism of the
written words.
When l had finished the reading Of
them aloud, Cameron, leaning far back
In his chair, sat silently thoughtful,
his eyes narrowed behind his glasses.
but fixed apparently upon the lights
behind me. And so, reluctant to inter.
rupt his r~everie, / started to read
them through again slowly. this time
to myself, fixing each sentence indel-
IDLY in mind as l proceeded. But be-
fore | had quite come to the end, my
companion was speaking.
"WeIl?" he said. And the light
c~heeriness of his tone was not only in
marked contrast with his grave alb
sorption Of d moment before, but in
jarring discord with my present
mood. We'll? What do you make OF
them?"
My annoyance found voice in my re-
Spouse.
Cameron" / begged, "for Gods
sake be serious. THIS doesn't
to me exactly a matter to be merry
over. l don't want to alarm you, but
somehow | feel that these" and |
shook the cracking. WaX-likc sheets,
that these cannot be utterly ignored"
But they are anonymous" he re-
torted, not uniustly. Anonymous
letters should be burned and forgot
ten"
There are anonymous letters and
anonymous letters" gave him back,
in turn. These are of an unusually
convincing character. Besides. they
-" And then ! paused, wished to
tell him Of that elusive encompass.
ment Of sinister portent which had 80
impressed me; Of that malign forebod.
ing beyond anything warranted by the
words; but | stumbled In the effort at
expression. Besides" | started again,
and ended lamely. Il don't like the
look and the feel Of them"