Tales of Terror and Mystery
By
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Contents
Tales of Terror
The Horror of the Heights
The Leather Funnel
The New Catacomb
The Case of Lady Sannox
The Terror of Blue John Gap
The Brazilian Cat
Tales of Mystery
The Lost Special
The Beetle-Hunter
The Man with the Watches
The Japanned Box
The Black Doctor
The Jew's Breastplate
Tales of Terror
The Horror of the Heights
The idea that the extraordinary narrative which has been called theJoyce-Armstrong Fragment is an elaborate practical joke evolved by someunknown person, cursed by a perverted and sinister sense of humour, hasnow been abandoned by all who have examined the matter. The mostmacabre and imaginative of plotters would hesitate before linking hismorbid fancies with the unquestioned and tragic facts which reinforcethe statement. Though the assertions contained in it are amazing andeven monstrous, it is none the less forcing itself upon the generalintelligence that they are true, and that we must readjust our ideas tothe new situation. This world of ours appears to be separated by aslight and precarious margin of safety from a most singular andunexpected danger. I will endeavour in this narrative, whichreproduces the original document in its necessarily somewhatfragmentary form, to lay before the reader the whole of the facts up todate, prefacing my statement by saying that, if there be any who doubtthe narrative of Joyce-Armstrong, there can be no question at all as tothe facts concerning Lieutenant Myrtle, R. N., and Mr. Hay Connor, whoundoubtedly met their end in the manner described.
The Joyce-Armstrong Fragment was found in the field which is calledLower Haycock, lying one mile to the westward of the village ofWithyham, upon the Kent and Sussex border. It was on the 15thSeptember last that an agricultural labourer, James Flynn, in theemployment of Mathew Dodd, farmer, of the Chauntry Farm, Withyham,perceived a briar pipe lying near the footpath which skirts the hedgein Lower Haycock. A few paces farther on he picked up a pair of brokenbinocular glasses. Finally, among some nettles in the ditch, he caughtsight of a flat, canvas-backed book, which proved to be a note-bookwith detachable leaves, some of which had come loose and werefluttering along the base of the hedge. These he collected, but some,including the first, were never recovered, and leave a deplorablehiatus in this all-important statement. The note-book was taken by thelabourer to his master, who in turn showed it to Dr. J. H. Atherton, ofH