CUENTOS

Tales of Terror and Mystery
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Contents
Tales of Terror
The Horror of the Heights
The Leather Funnel
The New Catacomb
The Case of Lady Sannox
The Terror of Blue John Gap
The Brazilian Cat

Tales of Mystery
The Lost Special
The Beetle-Hunter
The Man with the Watches
The Japanned Box
The Black Doctor
The Jew's Breastplate

Tales of Terror
The Horror ofthe Heights
The idea that the extraordinary narrative which has been called the Joyce-Armstrong
Fragment is an elaborate practical joke evolved by some unknown person, cursed by a
perverted and sinister sense of humour, has now been abandoned by all who have
examined the matter. The most macabre and imaginative of plotters would hesitate
before linking his morbid fancies with the unquestionedand tragic facts which reinforce
the statement. Though the assertions contained in it are amazing and even monstrous, it
is none the less forcing itself upon the general intelligence that they are true, and that we
must readjust our ideas to the new situation. This world of ours appears to be separated
by a slight and precarious margin of safety from a most singular and unexpected danger.
Iwill endeavour in this narrative, which reproduces the original document in its
necessarily somewhat fragmentary form, to lay before the reader the whole of the facts
up to date, prefacing my statement by saying that, if there be any who doubt the
narrative of Joyce-Armstrong, there can be no question at all as to the facts concerning
Lieutenant Myrtle, R. N., and Mr. Hay Connor, whoundoubtedly met their end in the
manner described.
The Joyce-Armstrong Fragment was found in the field which is called Lower Haycock,
lying one mile to the westward of the village of Withyham, upon the Kent and Sussex
border. It was on the 15th September last that an agricultural labourer, James Flynn, in
the employment of Mathew Dodd, farmer, of the Chauntry Farm, Withyham, perceived
a briar pipelying near the footpath which skirts the hedge in Lower Haycock. A few
paces farther on he picked up a pair of broken binocular glasses. Finally, among some
nettles in the ditch, he caught sight of a flat, canvas-backed book, which proved to be a
note-book with detachable leaves, some of which had come loose and were fluttering
along the base of the hedge. These he collected, but some, includingthe first, were

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never recovered, and leave a deplorable hiatus in this all-important statement. The notebook was taken by the labourer to his master, who in turn showed it to Dr. J. H.
Atherton, of Hartfield. This gentleman at once recognized the need for an expert
examination, and the manuscript was forwarded to the Aero Club in London,where it
now lies.
The first two pages of the manuscript are missing. There is also one torn away at the
end of the narrative, though none of these affect the general coherence of the story. It is
conjectured that the missing opening is concerned with the record of Mr. JoyceArmstrong's qualifications as an aeronaut, which can be gathered from other sources
and are admitted to be unsurpassedamong the air-pilots of England. For many years he
has been looked upon as among the most daring and the most intellectual of flying men,
a combination which has enabled him to both invent and test several new devices,
including the common gyroscopic attachment which is known by his name. The main
body of the manuscript is written neatly in ink, but the last few lines are in pencil and
are soragged as to be hardly legible--exactly, in fact, as they might be expected to
appear if they were scribbled off hurriedly from the seat of a moving aeroplane. There
are, it may be added, several stains, both on the last page and on the outside cover
which have been pronounced by the Home Office experts to be blood--probably human
and certainly mammalian. The fact that something closely...