Bat-Wing by Sax Rohmer Page A

full moon. And because you associate the activities of
Voodoo with the full moon, you believe that the old menace has again
become active?"
    The Colonel nodded emphatically. He was busily engaged in rolling one
of his eternal cigarettes.
    "This belief of yours was recently confirmed by the discovery of the
bat wing?"
    "I no longer doubted," said Colonel Menendez, shrugging his shoulders.
"How could I?"
    "Quite so," murmured Harley, absently, and evidently pursuing some
private train of thought. "And now, I take it that your suspicions, if
expressed in words would amount to this: During your last visit to Cuba
you (
a
) either killed some high priest of Voodoo, or (
b
) seriously
injured him? Assuming the first theory to be the correct one, your
death was determined upon by the sect over which he had formerly
presided. Assuming the second to be accurate, however, it is presumably
the man himself for whom we must look. Now, Colonel Menendez, kindly
inform me if you recall the name of this man?"
    "I recall it very well," replied the Colonel. "His name was M'kombo,
and he was a Benin negro."
    "Assuming that he is still alive, what, roughly, would his age be to-
day?"
    The Colonel seemed to meditate, pushing a box of long Martinique cigars
across the table in my direction.
    "He would be an old man," he pronounced. "I, myself, am fifty-two, and
I should say that M'kombo if alive to-day would be nearer to seventy
than sixty."
    "Ah," murmured Harley, "and did he speak English?"
    "A few words, I believe."
    Paul Harley fixed his gaze upon the dark, aquiline face.
    "In short," he said, "do you really suspect that it was M'kombo whose
shadow you saw upon the lawn, who a month ago made a midnight entrance
into Cray's Folly, and who recently pinned a bat wing to the door?"
    Colonel Menendez seemed somewhat taken aback by this direct question.
"I cannot believe it," he confessed.
    "Do you believe that this order or religion of Voodooism has any
existence outside those places where African negroes or descendents of
negroes are settled?"
    "I should not have been prepared to believe it, Mr. Harley, prior to my
experiences in Washington and elsewhere."
    "Then you do believe that there are representatives of this cult to be
met with in Europe and America?"
    "I should have been prepared to believe it possible in America, for in
America there are many negroes, but in England—"
    Again he shrugged his shoulders.
    "I would remind you," said Harley, quietly, "that there are also quite
a number of negroes in England. If you seriously believe Voodoo to
follow negro migration, I can see no objection to assuming it to be a
universal cult."
    "Such an idea is incredible."
    "Yet by what other hypothesis," asked Harley, "are we to cover the
facts of your own case as stated by yourself? Now," he consulted his
pencilled notes, "there is another point. I gather that these African
sorcerers rely largely upon what I may term intimidation. In other
words, they claim the power of wishing an enemy to death."
    He raised his eyes and stared grimly at the Colonel.
    "I should not like to suppose that a man of your courage and culture
could subscribe to such a belief."
    "I do not, sir," declared the Colonel, warmly. "No Obeah man could ever
exercise his will upon
me!
"
    "Yet, if I may say so," murmured Harley, "your will to live seems to
have become somewhat weakened."
    "What do you mean?"
    Colonel Menendez stood up, his delicate nostrils dilated. He glared
angrily at Harley.
    "I mean that I perceive a certain resignation in your manner of which I
do not approve."
    "You do not
approve?
" said Colonel Menendez, softly; and I thought as
he stood looking down upon my friend that I had rarely seen a more
formidable figure.
    Paul Harley had roused him unaccountably, and knowing my friend for a
master of tact I knew also that this had been deliberate, although I
could not even dimly perceive his object.
    "I occupy the position of a specialist," Harley continued, "and