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Updated: April 30, 2025
Each declared that they were entirely ignorant as to the appearance of the ghost, and all were evidently too frightened to doubt the truth of their statement. Thus when evening came nothing was known of it. Kaffar did not speak to me from the time I had seen him in the morning to dinner-time, and evidently avoided me. Voltaire, on the contrary, was unusually bland and smiling.
She went away then and left me; while I, without knowing why, prepared to start for London. I had a great work to do. I had, if I was to win Gertrude for my wife, to break and crush Voltaire's power over me. I had to find Kaffar, if he was to be found, and that to me was an awful uncertainty, and I had to bring him to Gertrude before the next Christmas Eve.
This feeling possessed me till we arrived at Temple Hall, when I felt free, and, as if by the wave of some magical wand, Justin Blake was himself again. Instead of following the ladies into the house, I followed the horses to the stables. I thought I might see Simon Slowden, who I was sure would be my friend, and was watching Kaffar closely, but I could not catch sight of him.
A dozen times I was buoyed up with hopes, a dozen times my hopes were destroyed, leaving me more despairing than ever. In spite of the terrible heat, all that could be done I did. Recommended by an hotel proprietor, I engaged two of the shrewdest men in this wonderful city to try and find Kaffar, but they could discover no trace of him. I went to mosques, to temples, to bazaars in vain.
Blake convinced?" said Miss Staggles, leering towards me. "Of what?" I asked. "Of Mr. Voltaire's power." "Undoubtedly." "Come," said Kaffar, "Mr. Blake is still a sceptic. I think it fair that he should consent to test this for himself." "Certainly not," I replied. "But I think it our right," said Voltaire.
I caught him, and held him fast. "No, Mr. Kaffar, you must not escape," I said, leading him back to his chair. "You cannot kill me here!" he gasped. "I mean no wrong to you. I Ah, you've followed me for revenge." For an answer I went to the door and locked it. "Have mercy!" he said. "Don't kill me. I you don't know all! Voltaire's your enemy, not I." "You knew I was following you, did you?"
I did not think he would possess very much money, and a man of his temperament would devise some means of getting some. How? Work would be a slow process, and not suited to his nature. Kaffar would get money by gambling. But that did not help me forward. To search out all the gambling-houses in Paris would be a hopeless task; besides, would he gamble in Paris, a city of which he knew nothing?
"Then your advice is " "Send for this man at once. If he fails well, I have another alternative." "May I know what?" "No, not now." "Answer me this. Do you think I killed Kaffar, the Egyptian?" "No, I do not; but your enemy intended you should." "Why did I not, then?" "Because the Egyptian also possessed a mesmerist's power, and hindered you. At any rate, such is my opinion.
What motive, I asked, could Kaffar have in connecting me with the ghost, and what was the plot which was being concocted? There in the broad daylight the apparition seemed very unreal. The servants, alone in the hall at midnight, perhaps talking about the traditional ghost, could easily have frightened themselves into the belief that they had seen it.
"No one that will divulge anything. Every one else thinks that Kaffar has gone back to Egypt, as he said, and especially so as Voltaire has been making arrangements for his luggage to be sent to Cairo." "This is astounding. I do not comprehend in the least; but, tell me, who is this some one to whom you or he has related last night's affair, and why was it done?"
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