Free The Empty Coffins by John Russell Fearn Page B

“I am afraid both of you are wasting your time. It is willed that your wife will die, Mr. Malden—only much sooner than I had thought. That is what I came to tell you. After Inspector Rushton questioned me and I real­ized that your wife was surrounded by an aura of dark evil I made a special point of studying her vibrations. I found that she will die—today. I thought that if I came personally and told you this you would not find it such a terrible shock when her life ceases.”
    â€œI don’t believe it,” Peter said obstinately.
    â€œYou mean you prefer not to,” Singh corrected. “It is no use, Mr. Malden: you cannot defeat dest­iny.... However, I also looked further and I discovered that your wife’s death is, actually, only the beginning of a new life for her—”
    â€œSo you’re going to start preaching about the Hereafter as well?” Peter demanded, his nerves on edge. “I’m in no mood to listen.”
    â€œYou misunderstand me. I mean that your wife will start life anew as a vampire. That, too, would have come as a terrible shock had I not arrived to warn you.”
    Peter sat down slowly. He found it impossible to push Singh’s statements on one side: there was too much solemn conviction about them.
    â€œMr. Singh,” he said deliberately, “you once said you had sympathetic feelings towards people. Is there nothing you can do to help us? You read the future—accurately it would appear. Is there nothing that can be done to save my dear wife from the fate hovering over her?”
    â€œI am afraid not....” Singh considered for a moment, then a thoughtful look crossed his brown features. “There is something,” he said finally, “which is not quite right about this whole bus­iness.”
    Peter laughed hollowly. “Not quite right? The whole thing smells of diabolical evil from start to finish.”
    â€œI did not quite mean it in that sense,” the mystic said. “I am referring to the underlying current in your wife’s aura. I think I should explain that I read the future by means of the vibrations given off by a living body. I believe that these vibrations exist as a pattern and fore­tell the destiny of a living creature from the cradle to the grave. Normally, the cessation of these vibrations represents death—but in certain abnormal cases it could, I suppose, also represent a cessation of bodily functions.”
    â€œLike unconsciousness?” Peter suggested.
    â€œSomething more than that. Unconsciousness alone does not prevent bodily vibrations being given off, just as an unconscious person still breathes. No, I mean something more. Let us say—suspended ani­mation. A state wherein the body seems to be dead, but is not.”
    Peter got to his feet again and paced around the room slowly, thumb and finger to his eyes.
    â€œToo confusing for me, Singh,” he said finally. “Just what are you getting at?”
    â€œI am wondering,” Singh mused, “if I have really foreseen death, or something else. Your wife’s existence is certainly going to pass through an eclipse—that is inevitable—but I know she will reappear alive, as a vampire—after she has been buried. There is something about it all which is not—absolute.” Singh moved worriedly.
    â€œDeath should bring finality. Her change into a vampire should not become apparent to me because a vampire is outside the realm of human vibrations. Yet I see it….”
    Peter came to a stop, a thought turning over in his mind. Before he could utter it a shout from the top of the stairs sent him hurrying into the hall. Meadows was at the stair top.
    â€œBetter come, Peter,” he said anxiously.
    Forgetting all about Singh—and everything else—Peter dived for the staircase and sped up it. At the summit Meadows caught his arm.
    â€œJust a minute, son,” he