The Flying Death, Samuel Hopkins Adams [books for students to read .TXT] 📗

In every department of scientific inquiry, Professor Ravenden was, above all else, methodical. The extraordinary or unusual he set aside for calm analysis. When he came to a dark passage in his investigations, he made full notes and relied on patience and his reasoning powers for light. Facts of ascertained relations and proportions he catalogued. In crises of doubt, after exerting his own best efforts, he was not too proud to ask counsel, were there any at hand in whose judgment he felt confidence. But first he strove to make his own mind master of the problem.

Thus it was that on the night of September 19, after an evening’s moth-hunt, he went to his room and sat down to write. First, however, he changed to pyjamas and dressing-gown, for a sudden shower had soaked his clothing. He then selected from a box a cigar of a brand whose housing and apparel proclaimed it of high price and special flavour, lighted it, and smoked with deep, long puffs. To his daughter or any other who knew him well this would have signified some unusual mental condition, for the abstemious professor used tobacco most sparingly. On this occasion he needed it as a sedative. Professor Ravenden had undergone a severe shock.

For more than three hours he wrote, with long pauses for consideration. Once he rose, strode on slippered feet up and down the room and communed aloud with himself:

“Undeniably I was terrified…. Why otherwise should I have fled?… An object that may well have been harmless and must inevitably have presented aspects of scientific interest…. Perhaps the repetition… the instinct of peril deceived me, fostered by the previous inexplicable occurrences… yet, even in my fright, I incline to believe that I preserved my powers of observation.”

When he slept upon the conclusion of his work, there lay amid the wreckage of scriptive revision upon his table three closely written sheets of manuscript.

Waking early the next morning, he aroused Haynes and Dick Colton, and asked them to come to his room as soon as they had dressed. Upon their entrance he bade them to seats, and took up the manuscript.

“In a case of this importance,” he said formally, “I shall not apologise, except by mention, for the disorder of my room. It has been my practice in cases presenting difficult aspects to reduce the salient facts to writing, thus preserving the more important features unencumbered with obstructive detail. This method it was which enabled me to throw some new light upon the dimorphic female of the Papilio turnus as found in the Blue Ridge chain. In the present instance I design to read to you, gentlemen, a report upon certain strange happenings of last night, and to ask your opinion as bearing upon the mysterious events which have crowded so fast upon each other recently. Before beginning to read, I may state that I never have been afflicted with any aberration of the senses, that I am in sound health, and that after the experiesces which I am about to state I tested both temperature and pulse for possible indications of fever. My temperature was 98.5, which is normal for me, and my pulse, while a trifle irregular, owing to nervous disturbances, was not unusually rapid. Do I present to you, Dr. Colton, any external indications of nervous or functional disorder?”

“Absolutely none, sir,” replied the physician promptly. “I should estimate.your temperament to be an unusually calm and rational one.”

“Then I shall proceed,” said Professor Ravenden, and turning to his manuscript he read:

“Report on certain events noted by Willis Ravenden, F. R. S., Sc.D., at Montauk Point, Long Island, on the evening of September 18, 1902.

“On the evening named I had set forth from Third House with the purpose of seeking a specimen of the Catocala. Besides my capturing net, a can of molasses and rum for an insect lure, and the poison jar, I carried, in pursuance of general agreement, a thirty-two-calibre revolver. Passing around the south end of the lake, I selected for my operations a patch of Quercus ilicifolia several hundred feet beyond the western shore and perhaps a mile distant from my point of departure, and smeared the leaves with the adhesive mixture. Some success was rewarding my efforts, among other captives being fine specimens of the Saturnia maia and the Dryocampa imperialis, when a cloudbank obscured the moon, and the wind which had been blowing lightly from the north became capricious and gusty. Conditions such as these are unfavourable to the pursuit of the nocturnal lepidopter�. Moreover, the darkness was becoming very dense. Hastily closing and packing my net, I set out for home. As nearly as I can estimate it then was about 10 o’clock P. M.

“Owing to the darkness and the irregularity of the ground, my progress was difficult. When I had almost reached, as I estimated, the shore of the lake, I stumbled and fell. As I regained my feet, a strange sound which appeared to come from above and a trifle to the northwest of me attracted my attention. It suggested the presence of some winged creature, although it resembled rather a crackling than a beating or flapping of pinions. It seemed to differ from the strange creaking which I had before noted when abroad at night, and which I at once recalled. Somewhat alarmed, I drew my revolver and cocked it. At this moment the wind, which had been dead from the north, veered in a sharp gust to the northwest. A rushing noise from the blackness above seemed to be drawing near me at a high speed, and as I braced myself for some assault, an object which I believe to have been very large, struck the ground with great violence a few rods, as I judged, to the west of me and came bounding over the earth in my direction. At the same time I discerned a faintly perceptible oily odour.

“For a moment I was paralysed with alarm. I make no concealment or palliation of the emotion. As it seemed, without volition, I then leaped backward, and ran toward the end of the lake. Thus I avoided the advancing object, but only to run into further danger (if danger there was), for I heard another crackling noise of passage, and this time dimly saw in the void a great body pass swiftly above my head. Of the dimensions or shape of this phenomenon I can give no accurate description; but it seemed larger and of more solid bulk than any bird known to me as inhabiting this locality, and its movement suggested rather a skimming progress, borne by the wind, than a measured flight. Throwing myself upon the ground to avoid its notice, I remained until a heavy splash told of its having reached the lake. Then I rose and ran.

“With my first exhaustion of breath came reason. I turned, and while one hardly can answer for his own performances, I intended to return and investigate, for shame burned hot within me. Indeed, I already had retraced my steps for perhaps a hundred feet when there burst upon me a rain-squall so furious that I lost my way completely and was soon floundering in the edge of the lake. Realising my helplessness in this onslaught of the elements, I set out for home, and after an hour’s wandering, according to my estimate, reached Third House at ten minutes past eleven.

“Conclusions: That the two objects were presumably a pair of living creatures; that they were either in a state of panic flight, or were water-creatures hastening to refuge, since at least one of them terminated its course in the lake; that they probably were the same creatures whose presence has been noted overhead previously by myself, Mr. Haynes, Mr. Everard Colton and others.

“Query: What relation, if any, do they bear to the death of the sheep on the beach and of the sailor Petersen?”

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Professor Ravenden laid his manuscript on the table and looked at his auditors. Haynes had been making notes. Colton sat in rapt attention. Each drew a long breath as the reading closed, and the professor said:

“Gentlemen, have you any suggestions that will throw light upon these phenomena?”

Colton spoke