Checkmate by Joseph Sheridan le Fanu

Author:Joseph Sheridan le Fanu
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Ghost, History, Fiction, Horror, General
ISBN: 9781103005857
Publisher: BiblioBazaar
Published: 2009-01-31T00:00:00+00:00

A LETTER AND A SUMMONS.

ARIS ? Yes, he knew the hand well. His face darkened a little with a peculiar anxiety. This he will read first. He draws the candles all together, near the corner of the table at which he sits. He can't have too much light on these formal lines, legible and tali as the letters are. He opens the thin envelope, and reads what follows:—

"DEAR AND HONOURED SIR,

" I am in receipt of yours of the I3th instant. You judge me rightly in supposing that I have entered on my mission with a willing mind, and no thought of sparing myself. On the I ith instant I presented the letter you were so good as to provide me with to M. de la Perriere. He received me with much consideration in consequence. You have not been misinformed with regard to his position. His influence is, and so long as the present Cabinet remain in power will continue to be, more than sufficient to procure for me the information and opportunities you so much desire. He explained to me very fully the limits of that assistance which official people here have it in their power to afford. Their prerogative is more extensive than with us, but at the same time it has its points of circumscription. Every private citizen has his well-defined rights, which they can in no case invade. He says that had I come armed with affidavits criminating any individual, or even justifying a strong and distinct suspicion, their powers would be much larger. As it is, he cautions me against taking any steps that might alarm Vanboeren. The baron is a suspicious man, it seems, and has, moreover, once or twice been under official surveillance, which has made him crafty. He is not likely to be caught napping. He ostensibly practises the professions of a surgeon and dentist. In the latter capacity he has a very considerable business. But his principal income is derived, I am informed, from sources of a different kind."

" H'm ! what can he mean ? I suppose he explains a little further on," mused Mr. Arden.

" He is, in short, a practitioner about whom suspicions of an infamous kind have prevailed. One branch of his business, a rather strange one, has connected him with persons, more considerable in number than you would readily believe, who were, or are, political refugees.

" Can this noble baron be a distiller of poisons ?" David Arden ruminated.

"In all his other equivocal doings, he found, on the few occasions that seemed to threaten danger, mysterious protectors, sufficiently powerful to bring him off scot-free. His relations of a political character were those which chiefly brought him under the secret notice of the police. It is believed that he has amassed a fortune, and it is certain that he is about to retire from business. I can much better explain to you, when I see you, the remarkable circumstances to which I have but alluded, I hope to be in town again, and to have the honour of waiting upon you, on Thursday, the 29th instant.

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