Mystery of the cemetery

The story begins in the village of Mainville in the afternoon during the funeral of a man named Joseph Burns. Before his death, he handed Pastor Dobson a small golden ball with a strange request: “Before you put my body in the grave, put this ball on it on the floor at the point marked with the letter“ A. ” To fulfill his request, the pastor descends into the tomb, but does not return from there.

A few hours later, an unknown person knocks on the door of the Dobson house. Introducing himself as Mr. Bell, he informs the pastor’s daughter, Miss Dobson, that he knows where her father is and is ready to return him for a reward of £ 10,000 . Assuming that the man abducted her father, Miss Dobson calls the police, meanwhile, trying to detain the stranger. However, when the police appear in the person of the best detective, Mainville King John, Mr. Bell jumps out the window and hides. King John pursues him to the station, but Bell fled, jumping into the departing train to the neighboring city of Kent. King John hires a cab to take him to Kent as soon as possible, ahead of the train. In Kent King John manages to arrest Bella at the last moment, when he was ready to board the ship sailing to Africa .

A few days later, the trial begins on John Bell, accused of abducting Pastor Dobson. During the process, the pastor enters the courtroom on his own. He says that when he put the ball at the indicated point, a secret door opened, Bell dragged him there and locked it. Due to chance, the pastor was able to pick up the key to the door a few days later and got out. He also stated that John Bell and Francis Burns (brother of the late Joseph) had long been looking for a way to harm him because of personal hostility. As a result of the trial, they were both sentenced to life imprisonment.

• The story of the creation of the story in the Lovecraft biography written by S.T. Joshi (Russian)
• Amateur translation of the story