Oakes's Experience
Oakes began:
"Mandel & Sturgeon gave me a letter to the chief care-taker, Cook, and I went to Mona as Clark, their agent, giving as an excuse for my presence there that Mr. Odell Mark contemplated making radical alterations in the Mansion before returning to it. Cook and his wife opened that portion of the Mansion which I thought best adapted for my temporary residence—about half of the place, I should say. I spent a few quiet days looking around the estate and the house. I was always on guard, however, lest I appear too inquisitive and thereby betray my true mission.
"There was an old maid-servant, Annie by name, and several gardeners about. These latter, I found, were never admitted to the Mansion. My meals were served in the dining-room, and this room was the one in which I spent most of my time. The servants gave me but little information regarding the mysterious doings that had so frightened their employers. I could tell by their action that they were genuinely afraid to be alone in the place, and they all cautioned me repeatedly. They seemed anxious that the affair should be investigated, and said that Mr. Odell should have had detectives at work on the mystery. It was evident they were afraid that they would lose their positions if no one returned to live at the Mansion soon.
"I noticed a strong under-current of contempt for Mr. Odell; they seemed to think he was a cowardly fellow, none too anxious to remain, or he would have investigated the affair. In fact, they behaved sometimes as though they thought that he might have been at the bottom of the mystery. Occasionally, Cook and his wife and Annie had stayed in the Mansion, cleaning up, and had never seen anything unusual. Nothing had occurred since Mr. Odell Mark had left—which certainly was peculiar.
"I could see that my true identity was not suspected. My presence seemed to have inspired confidence in them all. I called Cook and his wife, or Annie, into my rooms for a talk quite frequently. Nothing happened, and I began to feel that there was exaggeration somewhere; but, nevertheless, I moved with caution and slept in the back room over the dining-room with the doors carefully locked. I insisted that Mr. and Mrs. Cook sleep in the front room. The servants at first demurred, but finally consented when I told them that if they did not do so I would not remain, and would report unfavorably as regards the remodeling of the Mansion. I noticed that they bolted their doors carefully every night and kept a light burning in their room. This I knew, as its rays shone through under their door into the hall.
"This satisfied me that they were on guard and afraid, and consequently unaware of the real nature of the mystery.
"Late one night, after about a week, I was looking out of one of the windows in the dining-room, watching a boat passing. The lights upon her and the throbbing of her engines, half a mile away, were plunging me into a reverie, when suddenly I felt a peculiar sensation of uneasiness. I glanced along the porch, and at the windows; everything seemed all right. I turned, and saw Annie some distance up the hall attending to a lamp at the foot of the stairs. The afternoon paper lay on the table. I walked over to it and picked it up, stationing myself a few feet away from the hall door, where I commanded a view of the entire room, the windows and the balcony. I heard, or fancied I heard, a step or shuffle, and then instantly something closed around my throat and I was pulled backward and downward. I heard a rush in the hall and saw Annie's terrified face looking into the room, but she did not see me. I tried to cry out for help, but was unable to raise my voice. Realizing that I was being killed without aid, I struggled with all my power. I have an indistinct recollection of a shriek in the hall, then a rustling sound, as of garments, near me. The next I knew, Annie, Cook and his wife, with two gardeners, were working over me. One of the gardeners had opened my shirt and thrown water upon my throat. I was unconscious for some minutes, they said; but when I recovered my senses I ordered all hands to keep their mouths closed, under pain of instant dismissal. Inquiries instituted by me revealed that Annie had first heard my struggles, and the shriek that had been given was hers. Response had been quick, but when Cook first entered the room, backed up by the wife and old Annie, I was lying limp and unconscious, face downward on the floor, as though I had been thrown violently forward."