The Dirigibles of Death Read Online Free Page B

unidentified airship, and the equally mysterious murders of four occupants of the Antelope Inn and of five unknown Gypsies who had been encamped with their caravan near Cobham. As Doctor Grayson has already described all the essential details of the murders and the conditions existing before my arrival, it is not necessary for me to repeat them. Neither is it essential that I should more than briefly mention the dastardly attack upon the picnickers at Netley Heath and the attack upon the motorists at the Hogback.
    I arrived at Ripley to find Doctor Richard Morrison, the Guildford coroner, already on the spot. He had, in fact, commenced his examination of the bodies of the unfortunate inmates of the Antelope. As Doctor Grayson has mentioned, and as he pointed out to Doctor Morrison, the wounds that had caused death were most unusual, and it was evident to all of us, after a brief examination, that they had been inflicted, not by any weapon, but by the murderers' bare hands. Possibly we would have doubted this had not Doctor Grayson told us of the discovery of the dead body of a repulsively horrible man at the scene of the Gypsy murders. His description of the dead man's talon-like nails, his powerful teeth—still holding (as we discovered later) fragments of human flesh in their grip, and the condition of the Gypsies' bodies, convinced us that the fellow and his companions were ferocious homicidal maniacs. Moreover, we agreed with Doctor Grayson that he (with the others) had arrived by the airship.
    It seemed a very simple affair from the detective's point of view. We knew, or assumed we knew, who the murderers were, one of them (of course, at that time we had no means of knowing if there were others) was dead and we had merely to trail the others (if any), arrest them and the whole affair was at an end. In fact, the greatest mysteries to be solved appeared to be the origin and identity of the dirigible and the identity of the murderers, also why they had arrived and from where. But I soon found that to trace the murderers and to arrest them were far from easy tasks. I had thought that strangers, so easily recognized, so remarkable in appearance as these must be (judging from the one whose body had been found by Doctor Grayson) would be easily traced. And I assumed that once they were located it would be a simple matter to place them under arrest. So accustomed are we of the British police to meeting with little or no resistance, the average British citizen having an inborn respect for the representatives of the law, that it did not occur to me that we would have any difficulties in this respect. Neither did I (at the time) take into consideration that the men we had to deal with were (as far as we could judge by the one killed by the Gypsies) maniacs, and hence would not recognize the police as such and would not be subject to the same regard for the police authority as sane persons. And I was very soon to learn that the only traces of their presence left by these malefactors were in the form of heinous crimes. Before I had even time to call up headquarters and set the machinery of the law in motion, Benjamin Butler, a farmer of West Clandon, arrived in Ripley and reported having been attacked by the maniacs near East Clandon.
    As Doctor Grayson has described, Butler escaped, and I at once got into communication with the constables at East and West Clandon, Clandon Park, Merrow, Albury, Gomshall, Westcott, Dorking, Mickleham, Plesdon, and East Horsley, thus completely encircling the district with patrols and (so I thought) making certain that the murderous thugs would be apprehended within an hour or two. I had scarcely finished giving my instructions when word came of the attack on the motorists on the Hogback, and I at once communicated with the constabulary of all towns and villages in that vicinity. Feeling now confident that the net had been spread for the quarry, I interrogated Doctor Grayson at greater length,