by Arthur Machen I THE EXPERIMENT “I am glad you came, Clarke; very glad indeed. I was not sure could spare the time.” “I was able to make arrangements for a few days; things are not very lively just now. But have you no misgivings, Raymond? Is it absolutely safe?” The two men were slowly pacing the terrace in front of Dr. Raymond’s house. The sun still hung above the western mountain-line, but it shone with a dull red glow that cast no shadows, and all the air was quiet; a sweet breath came from the great wood on ...Read More

II MR. CLARKE’S MEMOIRS Mr. Clarke, the gentleman chosen by Dr. Raymond to witness the strange experiment of the Pan, was a person in whose character caution and curiosity were oddly mingled; in his sober moments he thought of the unusual and eccentric with undisguised aversion, and yet, deep in his heart, there was a wide-eyed inquisitiveness with respect to all the more recondite and esoteric elements in the nature of men. The latter tendency had prevailed when he accepted Raymond’s invitation, for though his considered judgment had always repudiated the doctor’s theories as the wildest nonsense, yet he ...Read More

III THE CITY OF RESURRECTIONS “Herbert! Good God! Is it possible?” “Yes, my name’s Herbert. I think I know face, too, but I don’t remember your name. My memory is very queer.” “Don’t you recollect Villiers of Wadham?” “So it is, so it is. I beg your pardon, Villiers, I didn’t think I was begging of an old college friend. Good-night.” “My dear fellow, this haste is unnecessary. My rooms are close by, but we won’t go there just yet. Suppose we walk up Shaftesbury Avenue a little way? But how in heaven’s name have you come to this ...Read More

IV THE DISCOVERY IN PAUL STREET A few months after Villiers’ meeting with Herbert, Mr. Clarke was sitting, as by his after-dinner hearth, resolutely guarding his fancies from wandering in the direction of the bureau. For more than a week he had succeeded in keeping away from the “Memoirs,” and he cherished hopes of a complete self-reformation; but, in spite of his endeavours, he could not hush the wonder and the strange curiosity that the last case he had written down had excited within him. He had put the case, or rather the outline of it, conjecturally to a ...Read More

V THE LETTER OF ADVICE “Do you know, Austin,” said Villiers, as the two friends were pacing sedately along one pleasant morning in May, “do you know I am convinced that what you told me about Paul Street and the Herberts is a mere episode in an extraordinary history? I may as well confess to you that when I asked you about Herbert a few months ago I had just seen him.” “You had seen him? Where?” “He begged of me in the street one night. He was in the most pitiable plight, but I recognized the man, and ...Read More

VI THE SUICIDES Lord Argentine was a great favourite in London Society. At twenty he had been a poor decked with the surname of an illustrious family, but forced to earn a livelihood as best he could, and the most speculative of money-lenders would not have entrusted him with fifty pounds on the chance of his ever changing his name for a title, and his poverty for a great fortune. His father had been near enough to the fountain of good things to secure one of the family livings, but the son, even if he had taken orders, would ...Read More

VII THE ENCOUNTER IN SOHO Three weeks later Austin received a note from Villiers, asking him to call either afternoon or the next. He chose the nearer date, and found Villiers sitting as usual by the window, apparently lost in meditation on the drowsy traffic of the street. There was a bamboo table by his side, a fantastic thing, enriched with gilding and queer painted scenes, and on it lay a little pile of papers arranged and docketed as neatly as anything in Mr. Clarke’s office. “Well, Villiers, have you made any discoveries in the last three weeks?” “I ...Read More

VIII THE FRAGMENTS [Amongst the papers of the well-known physician, Dr. Robert Matheson, of Ashley Street, Piccadilly, who died of apoplectic seizure, at the beginning of 1892, a leaf of manuscript paper was found, covered with pencil jottings. These notes were in Latin, much abbreviated, and had evidently been made in great haste. The MS. was only deciphered with difficulty, and some words have up to the present time evaded all the efforts of the expert employed. The date, “XXV Jul. 1888,” is written on the right-hand corner of the MS. The following is a translation of Dr. Matheson’s ...Read More