Transcribed from the 1914 John Lane, The Bodley Head edition,
By H. H. MUNRO(“SAKI”)
LONDON: JOHNLANE THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY
TORONTO: BELL & COCKBURN MCMXIV
“The Open Window,” “The Schartz-MetterklumeMethod,” and “Clovis on ParentalResponsibilities,” originally appeared in theWestminster Gazette, “The Elk” in theBystander, and the remaining stories in the MorningPost. To the Editors of these papers I am indebted fortheir courtesy in allowing me to reprint them.
H. H. M.
Leonard Bilsiter was one of those people who have failed tofind this world attractive or interesting, and who have soughtcompensation in an “unseen world” of their ownexperience or imagination—or invention. Children dothat sort of thing successfully, but children are content toconvince themselves, and do not vulgarise their beliefs by tryingto convince other people. Leonard Bilsiter’s beliefswere for “the few,” that is to say, anyone who wouldlisten to him.
His dabblings in the unseen might not have carried him beyondthe customary platitudes of the drawing-room visionary ifaccident had not reinforced his stock-in-trade of mysticallore. In company with a friend, who was interested in aUral mining concern, he had made a trip across Eastern Europe ata moment when the great Russian railway strike was developingfrom a threat to a reality; its outbreak caught him on the returnjourney, somewhere on the further side of Perm, and it was whilewaiting for a couple of days at a wayside station in a state ofsuspended locomotion that he made the acquaintance of a dealer inharness and metalware, who profitably whiled away the tedium ofthe long halt by initiating his English travelling companion in afragmentary system of folk-lore that he had picked up fromTrans-Baikal traders and natives. Leonard returned to hishome circle garrulous about his Russian strike experiences, butoppressively reticent about certain dark mysteries, which healluded to under the resounding title of Siberian Magic. The reticence wore off in a week or two under the influence of anentire lack of general curiosity, and Leonard began to make moredetailed allusions to the enormous powers which this new esotericforce, to use his own description of it, conferred on theinitiated few who knew how to wield it. His aunt, CeciliaHoops, who loved sensation perhaps rather better than she lovedthe truth, gave him as clamorous an advertisement as anyone couldwish for by retailing an account of how he had turned a vegetablemarrow into a wood pigeon before her very eyes. As amanifestation of the possession of supernatural powers, the storywas discounted in some quarters by the respect accorded to Mrs.Hoops’ powers of imagination.
However divided opinion might be on the question ofLeonard’s status as a wonderworker or a charlatan, hecertainly arrived at Mary Hampton’s house-party with areputation for pre-eminence in one or other of those professions,and he was not disposed to shun such publicity as might fall tohis share. Esoteric forces and unusual powers figuredlargely in whatever conversation he or his aunt had a share in,and his own performances, past and potential, were the subject ofmysterious hints and dark avowals.
“I wish you would turn me into a wolf, Mr.Bilsiter,” said his hostess at luncheon the day after hisarrival.
“My dear Mary,” said Colonel Hampton, “Inever knew you had a craving in that direction.”
“A she-wolf, of course,” continued Mrs. Hampton;“it w