THE MYSTERY OF CLOOMBER

CONTENTS

I THE HEGIRA OF THE WESTS FROM EDINBURGH

II OF THE STRANGE MANNER IN WHICH A TENANT CAME TO CLOOMBER

III OF OUR FURTHER ACQUAINTANCE WITH MAJOR-GENERAL J. B. HEATHERSTONE

IV OF A YOUNG MAN WITH A GREY HEAD

V HOW FOUR OF US CAME TO BE UNDER THE SHADOW OF CLOOMBER

VI HOW I CAME TO BE ENLISTED AS ONE OF THE GARRISON OF CLOOMBER

VII OF CORPORAL RUFUS SMITH AND HIS COMING TO CLOOMBER

VIII STATEMENT OF ISRAEL STAKES

IX NARRATIVE OF JOHN EASTERLING, F.R.C.P. EDIN.

X OF THE LETTER WHICH CAME FROM THE HALL

XI OF THE CASTING AWAY OF THE BARQUE "BELINDA"

XII OF THE THREE FOREIGN MEN UPON THE COAST

XIII IN WHICH I SEE THAT WHICH HAS BEEN SEEN BY FEW

XIV OF THE VISITOR WHO RAN DOWN THE ROAD IN THE NIGHT-TIME

XV THE DAY-BOOK OF JOHN BERTHIER HEATHERSTONE

XVI AT THE HOLE OF CREE




CHAPTER I. THE HEGIRA OF THE WESTS FROM EDINBURGH

I John Fothergill West, student of law in the University of St. Andrews,
have endeavoured in the ensuing pages to lay my statement before the
public in a concise and business-like fashion.

It is not my wish to achieve literary success, nor have I any desire by
the graces of my style, or by the artistic ordering of my incidents, to
throw a deeper shadow over the strange passages of which I shall have
to speak. My highest ambition is that those who know something of the
matter should, after reading my account, be able to conscientiously
indorse it without finding a single paragraph in which I have either
added to or detracted from the truth.

Should I attain this result, I shall rest amply satisfied with the
outcome of my first, and probably my last, venture in literature.