第56章 "Spontaneous Combustion"(4)

"While I am out of the room, Walter," he said, "I want you to take these two glasses, cover them, and number them and on a slip of paper which you must retain, place the names of the owners of the respective coats.I don't like this part of it--I hate to play spy and would much rather come out in the open, but there is nothing else to do, and it is much better for all concerned that I should play the game secretly just now.There may be no cause for suspicion at all.In that case I'd never forgive myself for starting a family row.And then again but we shall see."After I had numbered and recorded the glasses Kennedy returned, and we went down-stairs again.

"Curious about the will, isn't it?" I remarked as we stood on the wide verandah a moment.

"Yes," he replied."It may be necessary to go back to New York to delve into that part of it before we get through, but I hope not.

We'll wait."

At this point the groom interrupted us to say that he had caught the rabbits.Kennedy at once hurried to the stable.There he rolled up his sleeves, pricked a vein in his arm, and injected a small quantity of his own blood into one of the rabbits.The other he did not touch.

It was late in the afternoon when Tom returned from town with his uncle and cousin.He seemed even more agitated than usual.

Without a word he hurried up from the landing and sought us out.

"What do you think of that?" he cried, opening a copy of the Record, and laying it flat on the library table.

There on the front page was Lewis Langley's picture with a huge scare-head:

MYSTERIOUS CASE OF SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION"It's all out," groaned Tom, as we bent over to read the account.

"And such a story!"

Under the date of the day previous, a Saranac despatch ran:

Lewis Langley, well known as sporting man and club member in New York, and eldest son of the late Lewis Langley, the banker, was discovered dead under the most mysterious circumstances this morning at Camp Hangout, twelve miles from this town.

The Death of "Old Krook" in Dickens's "Bleak House" or of the victim in one of Marryat's most thrilling tales was not more gruesome than this actual fact.It is without doubt a case of spontaneous human combustion, such as is recorded beyond dispute in medical and medico-legal text-books of the past two centuries.

Scientists in this city consulted for the Record agree that, while rare, spontaneous human combustion is an established fact and that everything in this curious case goes to show that another has been added to the already well-authenticated list of cases recorded in America and Europe.The family refuse to be interviewed, which seems to indicate that the rumours in medical circles in Saranac have a solid basis of fact.

Then followed a circumstantial account of the life of Langley and the events leading up to the discovery of the body--fairly accurate in itself, but highly coloured.

"The Record man must have made good use of his time here," Icommented, as I finished reading the despatch."And--well, they must have done some hard work in New York to get this story up so completely--see, after the despatch follow a lot of interviews, and here is a short article on spontaneous combustion itself."Harrington and the rest of the family had just come in.

"What's this we hear about the Record having an article?"Harrington asked."Read it aloud, Professor, so we can all hear it.""'Spontaneous human combustion, or catacausis ebriosus,"' began Craig, "'is one of the baffling human scientific mysteries.

Indeed, there can be no doubt but that individuals have in some strange and inexplicable manner caught fire and been partially or almost wholly consumed.

"'Some have attributed it to gases in the body, such as carbureted hydrogen.Once it was noted at the Hotel Dieu in Paris that a body on being dissected gave forth a gas which was inflammable and burned with a bluish flame.Others have attributed the combustion to alcohol.A toper several years ago in Brooklyn and New York used to make money by blowing his breath through a wire gauze and lighting it.Whatever the cause, medical literature records seventy-six cases of catacausis in two hundred years.

"'The combustion seems to be sudden and is apparently confined to the cavities, the abdomen, chest, and head.Victims of ordinary fire accidents rush hither and thither frantically, succumb from exhaustion, their limbs are burned, and their clothing is all destroyed.But in catacausis they are stricken down without warning, the limbs are rarely burned, and only the clothing in contact with the head and chest is consumed.The residue is like a distillation of animal tissue, grey and dark, with an overpoweringly fetid odour.They are said to burn with a flickering stifled blue flame, and water, far from arresting the combustion, seems to add to it.Gin is particularly rich in inflammable, empyreumatic oils, as they are called, and in most cases it is recorded that the catacausis took place among gin-drinkers, old and obese.

"'Within the past few years cases are on record which seem to establish catacausis beyond doubt.In one case the heat was so great as to explode a pistol in the pocket of the victim.In another, a woman, the victim's husband was asphyxiated by the smoke.The woman weighed, one hundred and eighty pounds in life, but the ashes weighed only twelve pounds: In all these cases the proof of spontaneous combustion seems conclusive.'"As Craig finished reading, we looked blankly, horrified, at one another.It was too dreadful to realise.