Friday, 22 April, 1870

Fortunately today was a much quieter day than yesterday. I don't believe anyone other than Patsy, Salmalin, and myself awakened before early afternoon. I shall try to set down here all that was related to me by all members of the household concerning the bizarre happenings.

While I was assisting with the final packing Thursday morning, Edward drove Dr. Wilson ((in the small coach) to his new laboratory and workshop at B.F. & C. Stein and Company. Upon return, we boarded the barouche, and I drove everyone to the train station. We had just gotten the luggage in the car when Miss Sinclair and Miss Namaste noticed a small welsh herding dog exit one of the freight cars. Edward dashed over to greet the dog, while Miss Sinclair and Mr. Frazer investigated the freight car, looking for the human stowaway they presumed must have accompanied the dog.

The brass plate upon the dog's collar piqued everyone's interest. How was it that a small dog, belonging to the murdered Baron, came to be on a freight car just arrived on the milk run from Liverpool? It soon became clear that the dog could understand human speech. Mrs. Cuthbert soon determined that the dog could spell out words. He claimed to be searching for the Baron's murderer.

The trip to Liverpool was immediately cancelled, as it became clear that the murderer had fled Liverpool to London. It seemed likely that the phantom which had attacked Mr. Ditteridge was connected with the murderer whom the dog, Owen, was tracking.

Owen claims that he is the product of medical experiments by the late Baron Scarisbrick. Miss Sinclair noted that Owen's skull has a slightly unusual shape, allowing for an increased brain size. Since the Baron was about to publish a paper describing comparative neurological development of three species: domestic dog, capuchin monkey, and guinea pig, it probably should have come as no surprise to any of us that Owen identified a monkey escaped from the Baron's lab as the murderer.

The monkey, who Owen said is named "Iota," somehow convinced the Baron's assistant to help him murder the Baron and escape the lab. It seemed reasonable to assume that the turkish organ grinder seen by Edward on Wednesday evening would be this assistant.

While Mrs. Cuthbert and the master were interviewing Owen, Miss Whitnell retired to her rooms to delve into her reference books for information that might proof useful in fighting the phantom. Meanwhile, Miss Namaste asked Edward to take her on an errand.

Meanwhile, at the Ditteridge Townhouse, news of another tragedy had arrived. Mr. Jeremiah Basset, grandson of the late Baron Scarisbrick through his second daughter, Diane, had been killed in an accident. Mr. Bassett, his wife, and their young son, Watkyn, were on their way to the Ditteridge house when the accident happened. Mrs. Bassett and young Watkyn was taken to hospital.

While Inspector Bradshaw was delivering this news to Lord and Lady Ditteridge, Mr. Frazer brought the news to our household. Mrs. Cuthbert and Miss Sinclair decided to go offer comfort and assistance at the Ditteridge house, and accompanied Mr. Frazer.

Miss Whitnell and the master went to Sir Anthony's office, to make a report and gather more information.

Several of the servants had seen some small animal scurrying around in the Ditteridge's carriage house so Mr. Caine went out to investigate. Lt. Wooster, on his way to see if Caine needed help, was overcome with a strong urge to drink tea with sugar. By the time he reached the carriage house, he had a cup filled to the brim with soggy sugar, which he attempted to drink. Caine stopped him, recognizing the smell of cyanide.

It took Caine only a few minutes to determine that the kitchen's sugar supply had been contaminated with the poison, and that a creature had been hiding out in the dumbwaiter, and had subsequently left the house through the basement coal cute.

Miss Sinclair, Mrs. Cuthbert, Mr. Cuthbert, and Mr. Frazer arrived to find Caine and the Ditteridge servants searching the house for more poison or signs fo the poisoner.
Cuthbert circumspectly questioned members of the family for information about the Baron's assistant. During this discussion, the young lady whom Lt. Wooster is courting, Miss Angela Glossop, was showing some of her genealogical charts, and Lt. Wooster asked about an unnamed "baby boy" listed on one corner of the chart. Lady Ditteridge became very upset and didn't want there to be any further discussion of the topic. Mrs. Cuthbert and Lt. Wooster continued the conversation in private with Miss Glossop in another room, and soon had the full story.

Mr. Andrew Pilkington, the only son of Baron Scarisbrick, had followed in the baron's footsteps and become a naturalist of some renown. Many years ago he led an expedition to the Amazon, and settled semi-permanently in Brazil. While he was studying the rare flora of the Amazon valley, he apparently formed an amorous alliance with a native woman, and their union resulted in a son, Paolo. Andrew never informed the family of his dalliance. He helped raise the boy, training him as a naturalist, taking him on his many expeditions.

In '63, Andrew contracted a tropical fever and died. Paolo gathered up his father's papers, samples, and personal effects, and made the long journey to England, where he presented himself to the baron. The boy had been led to believe that he would be entitled, one day, to a share in the properties of the baron, and so was quite shocked when his grandfather explained that illegitimate sons could never inherit the lands and titles of a British noble. The baron offered the boy a position has his assistant on the condition that he never reveal his blood relationship to the family.

Members of the family, of course, learned of the relationship, but most chose to pretend that Paolo was just the trusted "native guide" who had brought home their departed relative's belongings.

At the same time that Mrs. Cuthbert, Miss Sinclair, and Lt. Wooster were learning this, Miss Whitnell had studied the files on Mr. Aiden Ramsey, the librarian who had interviewed Miss Sinclair last week. And the master had checked on the Scarisbrick family records, discovering the final ingredient which made the killer's motive clear. The barony of Scarisbrick is a very old one, created by a writ of summons issued by the King. As such, the titles could be inherited through a daughter's line if no sons survived the baron's death. In practice, the monarch usually grants the lands and incomes jointly to all surviving daughters, leaving the title in abeyance. After all the daughters die, the monarch then chooses a grandson or great-grandson to inherit the title and lands.

It seemed obvious to Miss Whitnell and the master that the person who conjured the phantom must be one of the heirs who was attempting to eliminate all competing claims. They decided to seek assistance from Mr. Ramsey, since the order to which he belongs claims to have exhaustive information on mystical matters, and since the files at Sir Anthony's office indicated that could be trusted.

While everyone was away, a note arrived at the house from Dr. Wilson. Dr. Wilson had been very busy that morning at his workshop, though not working on his planned experiments. Mr. Mortimer Hammersly, the new assistant, had barricaded himself inside the workshop, claiming that nefarious polish dwarfs were running around the city, disguised as monkeys and attacking innocent people with murderous intent. Dr. Wilson had managed to calm Mr. Hammersly, but he strongly suspected that Mr. Hammersly had had an encounter with the same monkey which had confronted Edward outside the meeting of the Naturalist Society Wednesday night.

At nearly the same time, a note arrived from Miss Sinclair relating that she, Mr. Frazer, and the two dogs, had tracked the monkey to Upper Thames Street, and were attempted to locate his accomplice, whom they presumed to be Paolo disguised as a turkish organ grinder.

I composed a hasty note to Dr. Wilson relating this information, and prepared to dispatch it by messenger. Edward and Miss Namaste, having returned from their errands, volunteered to take the message with due speed.

After arriving at Mr. Ramsey's office, Miss Whitnell and the master learned that Miss Namaste and Edward had visited him previously. Miss Namaste had reached the conclusion that Mr. Ramsey was involved in the case somehow. The visit had prompted Mr. Ramsey to begin research in the rituals which might lead him to the murderer and capture the phantom.

While this academic discussion of sorcerous possibilities was taking place, everyone else was convening at Upper Thames Street.

Miss Sinclair and Mr. Frazer had been watching a boarding house which they suspected to be the headquarters of the murderer, from a small café. A commotion had drawn their attention to the kitchen, where Miss Sinclair was overcome with an urge to drink some tea which, unfortunately, had been poisoned. While Mr. Frazer carried the unconscious Miss Sinclair out into the fresh air where Mrs. Cuthbert could attempt to revive her, the two dogs and Lt. Wooster chased the monkey out of the kitchen. Wooster fired at least one shot, missing the monkey, then followed it onto the roof of the building.

Mr. Cuthbert, Dr. Wilson, and several others were on the street, having been alerted to the presence of the murderous monkey. The devilish creature was intent upon making a stand, and using his unnatural mental powers, dominated Lt. Wooster and induced him to shoot at Mr. Cuthbert. Presumably he chose Mr. Cuthbert because he was the person holding the largest and most visible gun.

As Mr. Cuthbert and Miss Namaste took cover, Dr. Wilson caught sight of the monkey peering from between the curtains of a fourth story window in the boarding house.

Dr. Wilson fired without hesitation.

Edward headed up the side of the building. Everyone else ran into the building intent on finding the room where the monkey appeared to have been shot.

Dr. Wilson had decided, for some reason, to bring his mentally unstable assistant, Mr. Hammersly, along. Mr. Hammersly, convinced that the monkey was part of some conspiracy intent upon killing him, managed to get into the building ahead of everyone else, and with a speed born, apparently, of pure mad determination, reached the room ahead of everyone except Edward.

In the room Edward discovered the monkey, apparently dead from the bullet wound, and the young man whom Edward had seen earlier disguised as the organ grinder. The young man seemed to be in a drugged stupor, and standing over him was the phantom that had tried to strange Edward the night before.

No one was able to determine what Mr. Hammersly saw. He lit some small explosive device and through it at the phantom. Miss Namaste arrived close on Mr. Hammersly heels, and she thought that she saw Edward hit by the explosive device.

The phantom grabbed Mr. Hammersly around the neck and lifted him from the floor, this despite the fact that solid objects normally seemed to pass right through the phantom. Mr. Hammersly pulled a rather large explosive from his pocket and somehow lit its fuse.

Miss Namaste, uncertain who the drugged man was, grabbed him and rushed out of the room, shouting that everyone should run because of the explosive. Mrs. Cuthbert took hold of the arms of the man Miss Namaste was dragging, and helped carry him to the stairs.

Miss Sinclair, afraid that Edward was still in the room, squeezed past them in the hallway and ran to the door.

Edward had leaped out of the window when Mr. Hammersly tossed the first explosive. He had climbed back into the room, and saw Mr. Hammersly being choked by the phantom.

According to Edward, as soon as Miss Sinclair reached the doorway, the phantom dissolved. Miss Sinclair said she peered into the room and saw Mr. Hammersly falling to the floor, and Edward leaping across the room. Miss Sinclair and Edward managed to drag Mr. Hammersly to the stairwell before the explosive discharged.
Soon the metropolitan police were at the scene in force. Someone in Sir Anthony's employ, who was also acquainted with Mr. Ramsey, brought the news to the master, Miss Whitnell, and Mr. Ramsey that members of the League had been involved in some trouble related to an explosion on Upper Thames Street.

By the time they arrived, the situation had not sorted itself out much at all. The proprietress of the boarding house, Mrs. McKinnon, was understandably distraught. Many of her tenants were incensed.

Eventually everyone relocated to the offices in the Annex of the Museum. The young man Miss Namaste had rescued had not regained consciousness, but he was positively identified as the missing assistant.

Sir Anthony arrived at the museum, along with Prof. John Hammersly, son-in-law of the late baron and father of Dr. Wilson's assistant. Prof. Hammersly broke the news of the baron's death to his son and took him away to make preparations for the funeral. Sir Anthony apologized for being out of the country when all of this began, and introduced the League to an elderly widow, Mrs. Godwin. Mrs. Godwin, he said, was an important official in the Order of St. Jerome, and an old friend of Sir Anthony's. She took Mr. Ramsey into another room to get his report, while Sir Anthony listened to the reports of Miss Sinclair, Dr. Wilson, & cetera.

Mr. Ramsey returned to the room and explained how Paolo, using some exotic leaves he had brought with him from his native land, had sent his spirit out of his body to attack his relatives. He further reported that they had been able to mystically imprison the spirit, and would be able, at a time which seemed prudent to Sir Anthony and others in authority, return the spirit to its body. While the spirit was thus imprisoned, it compelled to answer questions truthfully. Thus interrogated, Paolo confirmed that he had assisted the monkey in poisoning Baron Scarisbrick, and had plotted to kill all of the Baron's other grandsons and great-grandsons, hoping that with no other heirs available, he might inherit.

Sir Anthony asked the League if they would be willing to investigate the baron's laboratory, to determine if any further dangers might be lurking therein. They agreed that this seemed the most prudent course of action. Sir Anthony and the master would make arrangements with the baron's widow for such a visit.

So, very late last evening members of our household returned, very tired and in several cases with soot-stained clothing. I fervently hope that the worst of the baron's unwise experiments has already been dealt with by Dr. Wilson's bullet and Mr. Hammersly's bomb.

Proceed to 4. The Season Stops for No One

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