The Veiled Man by Ambrose Pratt — Read

The more Simon thought the matter over, the more puzzled he became.

The cousin of an earl had helped him to evade justice--why? It was impossible to take Mr. Deen at the foot of the letter and attribute his peculiar kindness to a hypersensitive repugnance to confide his misfortune to a second strange servant. Simon was too old and experienced a world's Genizen to swallow so flimsy an excuse? He rejected it with contempt, in fact. But he looked for an answer to his question in vain. The veil, too, troubled him greatly. He was willing to believe his master's face unutterably hideous, but he shrunk from accepting mere ugliness as an explanation of such absolute retirement as Mr. Deen indulged in. It was beyond all reason. Men are gregarious animals. Moreover, Mr. Deen professed no hatred of this kind. Simon's instincts were mostly parasitical. Since early manhood, he had preyed furtively and constantly upon his fellow-beings, without rage, but also without pity and without remorse. He was a born spy, an accomplished blackmailer, and a gambler to the soles of his feet. He possessed an unlimited faith in the wickedness of human nature. Immediately he felt safe, and within a week he felt safe, his instincts prompted him to seek a victim whose blood he could devour. He discovered two--the Earl of Cawthorne and his cousin, the veiled man, John Deen.