Smoke Ghost & Other Apparitions by Fritz Leiber Read Free Book Online Page A

wearily. But that did not keep my thoughts from their endless circling. Who was I to believe? Delia or Jock? Was there a disordered mind at work, fabricating monstrous suspicions? And if so, whose mind was it? They were questions outside the usual province of a private detective.
    I TILTED the pamphlet to catch the failing light and re-read two passages that had particularly impressed me.
    At this Time it was rumored that Jockey Lowthrope had made a Pact with the Devil, with a view to acquiring a greater Skill in his Trade. There were many who testified privately that his Puppets acted and moved with a Cunningbeyond the ability of Christian Man to accomplish. For Jockey took no assistants and would explain to no one how his Manikins were activated...  
    Some say that Moll Squires and the French Doctor did not tell all they saw when they first viewed Jockey's Corpse. Certain it was that a long, thin Needle pierced his Heart and that both Hands were hacked off at the Wrists. Jockey's wife, Lucy, would have been held for Trial for Murder at the Assizes, only that she was never seen afterwards. Moll Squires averred that the Devil had come to fetch Jockey's hands, to which he had previous granted an unholy Skill. But many maintain that he was slain by his own Puppets, who chose the Needle as being a Weapon suitable to their Size and Dexterity. These recall how the Clergyman Penrose inveighed against Jockey, saying, "Those are not Puppets, but Imps of Satan, and whosoever views them is in Danger of Damnation."
    I pushed the pamphlet to one side. What could one make of events that had happened one hundred and fifty years ago – faint reverberations from the Eighteenth Century fear-world that had underlaid the proud Age of Reason? Especially when one read of them in an account obviously written for the sake of sensation-mongering?
    True, the names were oddly similar. Lowthrope and Lathrop were undoubtedly alternate spellings. And from what Jock had said he had further evidence of a blood relationship.
    The pamphlet angered me, made me feel as if someone were trying to frighten me with nursery tales of ghosts and goblins.
    I switched on the light and blinked at the electric clock. It was seven-forty-five ...
    When I reached the puppet theater it was buzzing with conversation and the hall outside was already blue with cigarette smoke. Just as I was getting my ticket from the sad-eyed girl at the door, someone called my name. I looked up and saw Dr. Grendal. I could tell that the garrulous old man had something on his mind besides his shiny, bald pate. After a few aimless remarks he asked his question.
    "Seen Jock since he got back from London?"
    "Just to say hello to," I answered cautiously.
    "How'd he impress you, hey?" The doctor's eyes glanced sharply from behind their silver-rimmed spectacles.
    "A little uneasy," I admitted. "Temperamental."
    "I thought you might say something like that," he commented, as he led me over to an empty corner. "Fact is," he continued, "I think he's definitely queer. Between ourselves, of course. He called me in. I thought he needed me in a professional capacity. But it turned out he wanted to talk about pygmies."
    He couldn't have surprised me more.
    "Pygmies?" I repeated.
    "Just so. Pygmies. Surprised you, didn't it? Did me, too. Well, Jock was especially curious about the lower limits of possible size of mature human beings. Kept asking if there were any cases in which they were as small as puppets. I told him it was impossible, except for infants and embryos.
    "Then he began shifting the conversation. Wanted to know a lot about blood relationship and the inheritance of certain traits. Wanted to know all about identical twins and triplets and so on. Evidently thought I'd be a mine of data because of the monographs I've scribbled about medical oddities. I answered as best I could, but some of his questions were queer. Power of mind over matter, and that sort of stuff. I got the impression his