The Messenger of Death (A Story)

Pierre Lucas laughed at his friend Henri Magnot and said:

Pierre — But Henri, you don't believe in dreams!

Henri — But I am sure of this dream... sure that you are about to die by murder!!

Pierre — Let us forget this matter now. I invited you here for good company and rest, and never in my life have I seen you so full of forebodings as today.

Henri — But I have a right to be, my dear fellow. Isn't this the first time I have ever come to your house? And yet I know every corner of this house, because I saw it in my dream. Don't you keep a glass of water and a pistol on the table in your room?

Pierre — (astonished) Yes... but how did you know that?

Henri — Because I saw them in my dream too.

Pierre — And how am I to be killed?

Henri — You will be stabbed with a knife in your sleep.

Pierre — (jesting) Then I shall sleep with one eye shut and the other open! Please, my dear fellow, let us forget all these silly things — perhaps a stretch of open ground will make us forget it all. And the two went out together; and as they were passing through the garden of the house, Henri started and cried out:

That very man — he is the man I saw in my dream — he is your murderer...

Pierre — Old Paul, a killer??? He has been twenty years in my service; he has devoted his life to my garden.

Henri — It is he... it is he...

And you must get rid of him by whatever means.

But Pierre Lucas paid no great heed to his friend's words... except that when Henri returned to Paris, troubled and confused in mind, he found the following telegram awaiting him:

“Calm your fears — I have got rid of the gardener.” Pierre

Henri's mind was set at ease, and that night he slept the sleep of the untroubled after weeks of wakefulness. But his peace of mind did not last long, for a few days later he read the following in the morning papers:

“Mr. Pierre Lucas was found stabbed with a sharp knife in his home yesterday. The criminal has been arrested: an old gardener employed by the victim. When the murderer was seized he confessed that he had killed Mr. Lucas because he had dismissed him from his service without any reason — though he had spent twenty years in that service!!”