Death in the Dusk
by
Virgil Markham
Jacobsen Publishing Company, Inc.
Copyright 1928 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Contents
Prefatory Words
The journal of Alfred Bannerlee, of Balzing (Kent), is at last to be published practically in full, and without the alteration of any name. I say “at last,” but I suppose there are some who would leap with joy if the closely-written pages of the Oxford antiquarian and athlete were utilized, like Carlyle’s first “French Revolution,” for building a cheery fire. Lord Ludlow certainly is one.
It seems incredible, but Mr. Bannerlee has requested Ludlow to write an introduction to the book. Perhaps Mr. Bannerlee was pulling the baronial leg. Of all the party of poor half-maddened people who emerged from Aidenn Vale after the powerful doings recorded in this Journal, I can imagine none less likely to perform this service for the diarist who clung faithfully to the task of recording terrors in the midst of terror and didn’t hesitate to display the baronial character at its craftiest. Small wonder, I should think, that on the eve of publication of what he himself admits is “an unbelievable and utterly veracious narrative” Lord Ludlow sails for unknown seas, and makes no secret of the fact that England’s loss is permanent.