The San Francisco call., 1913-07-20

DdCh. DuL HOW my S0HC 0oo6h1 ~
In vain.
Certainly / answered. ut hung
there pointing.
"Quite right. Now / want you to
observe the shelf top. You see how
crowded 1t ig''
II was indeed crowded. Bronze busts
and statuettes; yachting and gold
trophies in silver; framed photo
graphs; 3 score of odds and ends, SOU
venirs gathered the world over.
There was scarcely an inch Of space
unoecupied. When | had nodded my
assent he went on:
'On the afternoon of Friday. August
Il, seven days after the receipt Of that
| hrst letter, / was sitting where you are
sitting now. was reading, and deeply
interested. had put the letter entirely
out OF my mind. That seventh day
business had regarded as idle vapCr4
Ing. That this was the afternoon Of
the seventh day did not occur to me
until afterward. I recall that paused
in reading to ponder paragraph that
was not quite clear to me, and that
while in contemplation fixed my eyes
upon that portrait | remember that,
because It struck me, then, that the
flesh tints Of the face had grown
muddy and that the thing would be
better for cleaning. I recall, too,
that at that moment the little clock
yonder struck three. / resumed my
reading; but presently, another state
ment demanding cogitation, lowered
my book, and once more my eyes rest
ed ON the portrait. But not on the
muddy flesh tints. because'--he paused
and leaned forward, toward me, speak
Ing with impressive emphasis. Be
cause be repeated. there were no
flesh tints there. Because there was
no head nor face there!'
sat up suddenly, open faouthed.
speechiess. Only my wide eyes made
question.
Cut from the canvas he went on,
In lowered voice, clean and sharp
from crown to collar And the hands
OF the clock pointed to IL minutes
past g.
OF conveying even 1.-THE of the hor-
ror experienced at Cameron's dis
closure am nigh hopeless. The more
we discussed the occurrence the less
susceptible 1t seemed Of explanation.
Cameron showed me the mutiiated
portrait He had taken 1t down al
most Immediately and had hidden 1t
away In q closet of the hall behind an
array OF raincoats. The cutting had
been most dexterousiy done, evidently
with an exceedingly keen blade But
that it should have been accomplished
in ~ minutes, while Cameron nat In
the room, not 15 feet distant, was be-
yund our comprehension. Absorption
in his book was the nearest we came
to solution, and that was scarcely
tenable. For there was the crowded
top Of the book shelves. To cut the
canvas, the vandal must either have
stood upon that or have reared a lad.
der. There was not room for the foot
OF child on the shelf top; and AZ for
the ladder, II was unthinkable. How
could a ladder have been carried In
and out without Cameron being con-
scious Of IT. From every possible
angle we viewed the incident, making
every conceivable concession, and no
half way plausible answer to the rid
die presented ITSELF
We sat very late. / wished, II bog
sible, to learn If at any time In my
friends life he had done aught to en-
sender an ennlity to which these
strange developments could be traced.
As we talked | came to know Cameron
better than had ever known him be-
fore. He barred to me much OF his
early career; he gave me a clearer
view Of his temperamental qualities;
and yet could not but feel that ne had
left the vital point untouched, that
beneath his seeming frankness there
lay hidden, shielded, some one episode,
perhaps, which nigh. let the light In
upon our darkness. For my question
was evaded rather than answered.
Presently we went back to the let
tiers and dfssected them, coldly and
critically, sentence by sentence. and
while the weird influence which they
had exerted upon me at the first read
Ing increased. stimulated possibly by
the incident Of the portrait, still we
reached certain practical, common
sense view As to their origin; for we
came to see In them what we believed
to be the hand of a religious fanatic.
Certain expressions. we concluded,
were quotations. II they were not bib
lical. they were certainly OF sacred
genesis.
Nor did the absence Of q specified
date for the second promised demon.
stration Of power tend to relieve our
uneasiness. In this silence we found
the acme OF cunning cruelty. Any day,
at any hour, some other mystifying,
soul tOrturing incident was liable tn