Devil May Care (A Jonathan Harker Mystery) by Evans Tony

Author:Evans, Tony [Evans, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Press Ltd.
Published: 2013-11-19T00:00:00+00:00

Professor Van Helsing to Mr Jonathan Harker: 15th October 1895

My dear Jonathan,

I trust that your journey to Cornwall has been safely accomplished, and that you and your wife are both well. I am aware that time is of the essence in your investigation, and during the last week I have done what I can to gather some information regarding Sir Owen. No doubt there is more to learn, but I flatter myself that I have obtained the essentials.

After leaving Oxford in 1872, where he obtained an undistinguished degree in classics, Mr Owen Velland (as he was then) made his home in London. For six years prior to his inheritance of the baronetcy, Velland lived with his cousin, Mr Arnold Paxton, a wealthy invalid. Velland has had no formal occupation and it seems that he subsisted on his own small private income and his cousin’s generosity.

Owen Velland was not by all accounts a very sociable man, and was best known for his interest and involvement in spiritualism. He was one of the founder members of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882. His connection with the movement was entirely respectable, and at one time he counted William Crooks, the well known physicist, and William Stead, the journalist, amongst his fellow enthusiasts. However, Velland’s participation in such matters came to an abrupt end in December 1888, when his membership of the Society ceased. The reasons for this would no doubt have been hard to ascertain, were it not for the fortunate coincidence of my personal acquaintance with Mr Crooks, which dates from the time when we both worked at the Radcliff Observatory in the 1850s. He was kind enough to tell me the entirety of what he knew, on condition that the source of my information remained secret: a condition which I am sure you will honour.

According to Crooks, Velland had been dabbling in the occult – to be more specific, in the practice of alchemy and black magic – and a young woman of his acquaintance had threatened to inform the police that Velland had attempted to use “unnatural arts” in order to entice her into an immoral liaison. There was some doubt about the truthfulness of her allegation: one suggestion is that she knew of his potentially scandalous interest in magic, and had decided to turn it to her own account. In the event the complaint was not made: Velland’s cousin paid off the girl, and the matter was kept quiet, with no consequences for Velland other than his expulsion from the Society. Somewhat ironically, Crooks was adamant that the evidence subsequently uncovered of Velland’s activities showed that he was very far from being an adept in the black arts, and was in Crook’s words a “bumbling amateur”. There was certainly no indication that Velland had ever achieved any results from his attempted sorcery. Apparently his alchemical researches were no more successful – he had merely copied some ancient methods for discovering the philosopher’s stone, with predictable results. A charitable

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