The vampire nemesis and other weird stories of the China coast Read Free Page A

that Fergusson had killed her in the frenzy of his drunken passion. Afterward I had no cause to change my mind.
    " I think it must have dazed me, for I threw myself across her cold body and lay there until the moment before you saw me," he continued vacantly. " I got up then, leaving her poor stiffened limbs still bound to the bed-rails, and came on here."
    " Fergusson," I said gravely, " do you realise what this means, lad ? It means murder, and murder is an ugly word—even in China, Fergusson ! "
    " I realise what it means," he answered gloomily, "and I almost rejoice at it. It will prove one thing—it will prove that Justice, though in the abstract drawing a wrong conclusion from her premises, will yet be right in the fundamental fact."

    " What fact ? " For, having come to the same conclusion myself, I did not follow the drift of his reasoning.
    " The fact," he replied with a harsh laugh, " that I murdered her; though I swear to you, Ward, that no drop of her blood was shed by hand of mine."
    I smiled pityingly, and as I still smiled the little clock in the next room chimed out, then paused for a second and struck one. The smile and the words I was about to utter froze on my lips, for I felt the hair gradually rising on my head with vague, undefined apprehension. At the same moment something struck with a muffled thud against the side of the open window, and I heard a soft, insistent flapping of wings. A sudden puff of wind from somewhere fanned my cheek, as on the floor I saw the dark shadow of some huge "Thing" that was fluttering slowly round the room.
    For a space I was too terrified to look up, and when I raised my eyes it was to see a black, shapeless mass flapping through the open window into the blackness of the night beyond. Fergusson had covered his eyes with his hand as he cowered in his chair, shrunk into himself. Now he raised his head and put out a palsied hand, seizing my arm, as he whispered hoarsely—

    " Ward, did you see It ? "
    " See what ? " I asked uneasily, more to give myself time to recover my equanimity.
    "It! The'Thing'!"
    By this I had regained my composure, and was ready to laugh at my foolish fancy.
    " What thing ? " I asked him again.
    "The vampire!" said Fergusson in the same sepulchral whisper.
    " Bosh ! " I answered lightly. " There was something came into the room, but it was merely a large bat attracted hither by the light."
    " It was a vampire," insisted he, " the vampire! "
    " We are not in South America now," I replied testily, thoroughly ashamed of my sudden fears, "and there are no vampires in China."
    "Nevertheless," Fergusson repeated doggedly, "it was a vampire."
    "A flying-fox, perhaps," I told him, "and they are harmless, herbivorous like the bats."
    I was puzzled what to do with Fergusson. I could not leave my old chum to be taken in my own house, much as he might deserve it. At last an idea came to me that would at least give us more time.
    " Fergusson," I asked, breaking in on the dream into which he had fallen, " did you lock your door before you came away ? "
    "Lock it? No! Why?"
    " Give me your keys," was all I said.

    He handed them to me, and leaving him sitting there I sped across the road and gained his house.
    Everything was in darkness, but prompted by an impulse of curiosity I could not control, I crept softly into the bedroom and struck a match. Perhaps, after all, the whole thing was but a fancy of his distorted brain, and all might yet be well.
    As the match flared up, I held it above my head and looked around. Ah, no! There was the poor girl lashed, as he had described, to the bed, the cords sunk deep in the tender flesh. The pillow, too, was drenched in blood, as he had said, and as I bent over her I saw a small incision in her neck, just below the ear.
    It was true enough, then! But in spite of that curious little puncture in the fair skin, I still believed this ghastly thing was the terrible handiwork of my friend, and turned away with a shudder, locking