THE MAN WITH THE BLACK
FEATHER
In horror I recognized my own handwriting
See page 21
THE
MAN WITH THE BLACK
FEATHER
BY
GASTON LEROUX
Author of "The Mystery of the Yellow Room,"
"The Phantom of theOpera," etc.
TRANSLATED BY
EDGAR JEPSON
ILLUSTRATED BY
CHARLES M. RELYEA
BOSTON
SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1912
By Small, Maynard and Company
(INCORPORATED)
Entered at Stationer's Hall
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
HISTORICAL PREFACE
THE SANDALWOOD BOX
One evening last year I perceived in the waiting-room of my newspaper,Le Matin, a man dressed in black, his face heavy with the darkestdespair, whose dry, dead eyes seemed to receive the images of thingslike unmoving mirrors.
He was seated; and there rested on his knees a sandalwood box inlaidwith polished steel. An office-boy told me that he had sat theremotionless, silent, awaiting my coming, for three mortal hours.
I invited this figure of despair into my office and offered him achair. He did not take it; he walked straight to my desk, and set downon it the sandalwood box.
Then he said to me in an expressionless, far-away voice: "Monsieur,this box is yours. My friend, M. Theophrastus Longuet, charged me tobring it to you."
He bowed and was going to the door, when I stopped him.
[Pg vi]"For goodness sake, don't run away like that!" I said sharply. "I can'treceive this box without knowing what it contains."
"I don't know what it contains myself," he said in the same dull,expressionless tone. "This box is locked; the key is lost. You willhave to break it open to find out."
"At any rate I should like to know the name of the bearer," I saidfirmly.
"My friend, M. Theophrastus Longuet, called me 'Adolphe,'" he said inthe mournfullest tone.
"If M. Theophrastus Longuet had brought me this box himself, he wouldcertainly have told me what it contains," I said stiffly. "I regretthat M. Theophrastus Longuet—"
"So do I," said my visitor. "M. Theophrastus Longuet is dead; and I amhis executor."
With that he opened the door, went through it, and shut it behind him.I stared at the sandalwood box; I stared at the door; then I ran afterthe man. He had vanished.
I had the sandalwood box opened; and in it I found a bundle ofmanuscripts. In a newspaper office one is used to receiving bundlesof manuscripts; and I began to look [Pg vii]through them with