POSITION Owner, Shottum’s Cabinet of Natural Productions and Curiosities New York
DATES OF CORRESPONDENCE 1869–1881
CORRESPONDENT Prof. Albert Blackwood
SUBJECTS OF CORRESPONDENCE The Lyceum, the Museum
POSITION Founder, New York Museum of Natural History
DATES OF CORRESPONDENCE 1865–1878
CORRESPONDENT Dr. Asa Stone Gilcrease
SUBJECTS OF CORRESPONDENCE Birds
POSITION Ornithologist New York
DATES OF CORRESPONDENCE 1875–1887
CORRESPONDENT Col. Sir Henry C. Throckmorton, Bart., F.R.S.
SUBJECTS OF CORRESPONDENCE African mammals (big game)
POSITION Collector, explorer sportsman London
DATES OF CORRESPONDENCE 1879–1891
CORRESPONDENT Prof. Enoch Leng
SUBJECTS OF CORRESPONDENCE Classification
POSITION Taxonomist, chemist New York
DATES OF CORRESPONDENCE 1872–1881
CORRESPONDENT Miss Guenevere LaRue
SUBJECTS OF CORRESPONDENCE Christian missions for Borrioboola-Gha, in the African Congo
POSITION Philanthropist New York
DATES OF CORRESPONDENCE 1870–1872
CORRESPONDENT Dumont Burleigh
SUBJECTS OF CORRESPONDENCE Dinosaur fossils, the Lyceum
POSITION Oilman, collector Cold Spring, New York
DATES OF CORRESPONDENCE 1875–1881
CORRESPONDENT Dr. Ferdinand Huntt
SUBJECTS OF CORRESPONDENCE Anthropology, archaeology
POSITION Surgeon, collector Oyster Bay, Long Island
DATES OF CORRESPONDENCE 1869–1879
CORRESPONDENT Prof. Hiram Howlett
SUBJECTS OF CORRESPONDENCE Reptiles and amphibians
POSITION Herpetologist Stormhaven, Maine
DATES OF CORRESPONDENCE 1871–1873
The penultimate name gave her pause. A surgeon. Who was Dr. Ferdinand Huntt? There were quite a few letters from him, written in a large scrawl on heavy paper with a beautifully engraved crest. She flipped through them.
My Dear Tinbury,
With regard to the Odinga Natives, the barbaric custom of Male Partum is still quite prevalent. When I was in the Volta I had the dubious privilege of witnessing childbirth. I was not allowed to assist, of course, but I could hear the shrieks of the husband quite clearly as the wife jerked on the rope affixed to his genitalia with every contraction she experienced. I treated the poor man’s injuries — severe lacerations — following the birth…
My Dear Tinbury,
The Olmec Jade phallus I herewith enclose from La Venta, Mexico, is for the Museum, as I understand you have nothing from that extremely curious Mexican culture…
She sorted through the packet of correspondence, but it was again all in the same vein: Dr. Huntt describing various bizarre medical customs he had witnessed in his travels across Central America and Africa, along with notes that had apparently accompanied artifacts sent back to the Museum. He seemed to have an unhealthy interest in native sexual practices; it made him a prime candidate in Nora’s mind.
She felt a presence behind her and turned abruptly. Pendergast stood, arms clasped behind his back. He was staring down at her notes, and there was a sudden look on his face that was so grim, so dark, that Nora felt her flesh crawl.
“You’re always sneaking up on me,” she said weakly.
“Anything interesting?” The question seemed almost pro forma. Nora felt sure he had already discovered something important, something dreadful, on the list — and yet he did not seem inclined to share it.
“Nothing obvious. Have you ever heard of this Dr. Ferdinand Huntt?”
Pendergast gave the name a cursory glance, without interest. Nora became aware of the man’s conspicuous lack of any scent whatsoever: no smell of tobacco, no smell of cologne, nothing.
“Huntt,” he said finally. “Yes. A prominent North Shore family. One of the early patrons of the Museum.” He straightened up. “I’ve examined everything save the elephant’s-foot box. Would you care to assist me?”
She followed him over to the table laid out with Tinbury McFadden’s old collections, a decidedly motley assortment. Pendergast’s face had once again recovered its poise. Now Officer O’Shaughnessy, looking skeptical, emerged from the shadows. Nora wondered what, exactly, the policeman had to do with Pendergast.
They stood before the large, grotesque elephant’s foot, replete with brass fittings.
“So it’s an elephant’s foot,” O’Shaughnessy said. “So?”
“Not just a foot, Sergeant,” Pendergast replied. “A box, made from an elephant’s foot. Quite common among big-game hunters and collectors in the last century. Rather a nice specimen, too, if a little worn.” He turned to Nora. “Shall we look inside?”
Nora unclasped the fittings and lifted the top of the box. The grayish skin felt rough and nubbled beneath her gloved fingers. An unpleasant smell rose up. The box was empty.
She glanced over at Pendergast. If the agent was disappointed, he showed no sign.
For a moment, the little group was still. Then Pendergast himself bent over the open box. He examined it a moment, his body immobile save for the pale blue eyes. Then his fingers shot forward and began moving over the surface of the box, pressing here and there, alighting at one spot for a moment, then scuttling on. Suddenly there was a click, and a narrow drawer shot out from below, raising a cloud of dust. Nora jumped at the sound.
“Rather clever,” said Pendergast, removing a large envelope, faded and slightly foxed, from the drawer. He turned it over once or twice, speculatively. Then he ran a gloved finger beneath the seam, easing it open and withdrawing several sheets of cream-laid paper. He unfolded them carefully, passed his hand across the topmost sheet.
And then he began to read.
FIVE
TO MY COLLEAGUE, Tinbury McFadden
July 12, 1881
Esteemed Colleague,
I write these lines in earnest hope that you will never have need to read them; that I will be able to tear them up and dash them into the coal scuttle, products of an overworked brain and fevered imagination. And yet in my soul I know my worst fears have already been proven true. Everything I have uncovered points incontrovertibly to such a fact. I have always been eager to think the best of my fellow man — after all, are we not all moulded from the same clay? The ancients believed life to have generated spontaneously within the rich mud of the Nile; and who am I to question the symbolism, if not the scientific fact, of such belief? And yet there have been Events, McFadden; dreadful events that can support no innocent explanation.
It is quite possible that the details I relate herein may cause you to doubt the quality of my mind. Before I proceed, let me assure you that I am in full command of my faculties. I offer this document as evidence, both to my dreadful theorem and to the proofs I have undertaken in its defense.
I have spoken before of my growing doubts over this business of Leng. You know, of course, the reasons I allowed him to take rooms on the third floor of the Cabinet. His talks at the Lyceum proved the depth of his scientific and medical knowledge. In taxonomy and chemistry he has few, if any, peers. The notion that enlightening, perhaps even forward-reaching, experiments would be taking place beneath my own roof was a pleasant one. And, on a practical note, the additional hard currency offered by his rent was not unwelcome.