Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction. Vol. 27, No. 2, September 24, 1927

“Even so,” he remarked, “the problem should be interesting. The stain seems to be a pretty old one.”

He crossed the hall and ascended the massive staircase that led to Lord Temple wood’s bedroom.

Chapter XXVII The First Time the Horseman Rode

Lord Templewood was sitting in an armchair reading the Bible. Dr. Hailey observed that the volume was open at the Book of Revelation. He took the chair which the old man offered him with a movement of his fleshless hand.

Lord Templewood closed his Bible, and laid it on a small table beside him.

“Behold a pale horse,” he quoted, “and him that sat on him was Death.” He raised his eyes. “You have come to tell me that Ninon tried to poison me last night?”

“Yes.”

The doctor concealed his surprise by raising his eyeglass to his eye. The old man sighed deeply.

“I have sent her away for good,” he declared. “She and Sacha also.”

“You know that she has been giving drugs to your niece?”

Lord Templewood’s chair moved back sharply on its castors.

“That too,” he whispered.

He put out his left hand and rested it on the cover of his Bible. The fingers seemed to clutch at the well-used pages.

“Like father like son.”

He leaned toward the doctor.

“Barrington Bryan, to whom my niece is engaged, is a scoundrel, as was his father, Willoughby Bryan, before him. Ninon Darelli has told me of him.” Dr. Hailey moved his chair so that his back was squarely set toward the window.

“So they are friends,” he remarked; “the woman and your neighbor Bryan?”

“They know one another.” Lord Templewood closed his lips. “Oh, yes, they know one another.”

The doctor’s chair, which was of wicker work, creaked.

“Is it permissible to ask,” he queried, “whether you connect this engagement of Mrs. Malone to Bryan in any way with his acquaintanceship with Mlle. Darelli?”

He spoke in casual tones. But he watched the old man closely as he spoke. Lord Templewood’s face remained expressionless.

“I have not thought about it.” He lay back and closed his eyes. “Ninon’s going is a heavy blow,” he declared. “It will be necessary to obtain a new medium.”

“She has been with you a long time?”

“Four years.”

Again Dr. Hailey’s chair creaked.

“Do you happen to remember,” he asked, “whether or not she was staying here on the night when Mrs. Malone’s husband met his death? I may explain that I have a special reason for seeking that information.”

“Yes, she was staying here.”

Lord Templewood’s fingers dug between the gilded leaves of his Bible. An expression of fear came into his eyes.

“It was on that night,” he declared, in tones of dismay, “that the Horseman of Death rode for the first time in my experience, to the door of The Black Tower. I heard him myself, and I was alone in this room. The next morning my niece’s husband was found lying with his head battered in. He must have been on his way here when he met his death.”

“That is according to the family legend, is it not?”

The old man inclined his head.

“When any member of my family, or the husband or wife of any member of my family, is about to suffer a tragic death,” he stated, “a horseman rides by night to the great door of the castle.”

His voice failed. His head sank down on his chest. He murmured.

“I have no doubt that it is the Spirit of Evil himself.”

Dr. Hailey opened his snuffbox and took a pinch.

“Where was Ninon Darelli at that moment?” he asked, in quiet tones.

“I don’t know. She was not here, in this room.”

Suddenly Lord Templewood raised flashing eyes to the doctor’s face.

“If you are hinting, sir!” he exclaimed, “that that woman reproduced the sound of the horse’s hooves by fraud, I can tell you that you are very much mistaken. The night was clear, with a half moon. I looked out at that window. With my own eyes I saw the horseman ride round the side of the castle to the great door.”

He sprang to his feet. His cheeks had become livid.

“I saw him; but I did not recognize him. It was only the next day, when I learned that Orme Malone had never reached this house at all, that I realized who it was that I had seen.”

Dr. Hailey rose also.

“I think it is my duty,” he said, in firm tones, “to tell you, Lord Templewood, that there are strong reasons for supposing that your first impression of the horseman was the correct one. I am not yet absolutely sure, but I possess evidence of an important kind in support of my opinion that Orme Malone did ride to this house on the night on which he met his death.”

He lowered his voice as he added:

“It was in this house, I think, that he met his death.”

He sprang forward as he spoke.

Lord Templewood had fallen in a faint on the floor.

Chapter XXVIII “How to Deal with Murder”

That same afternoon Dr. Hailey returned to London. He had definitely made up his mind that Lord Templewood was sane, and had informed Dr. Andrews, of Redden, of this decision.