There is no profession more ignoble than that of the critic-except perhaps that of the physician presiding at an execution.' - Father Cappi in Brimstone by Douglas Preston and Lincoln ChildĪgnes Torres enters the home of her employer, art critic Jeremy Grove, to find his eyes charred, his body apparently burned from the inside out. One would never tell a person in private that his painting was a revolting piece of trash, but the critic thinks nothing of making the same pronouncement to the world as if he were performing a high moral duty.

'Criticism is a profession which allows one a certain license to be vicious outside the bounds of normal civilized behavior. Frames: a Valentino mystery by Loren D.Antiques Bizarre: a Trash 'n' Treasures mystery by.Brimstone by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (bo.Dance of Death by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Chil.This Other Eden by Michael Hemmingson (collection.Spade and Archer by Joe Gores (the prequel to The.Wraiths and Worlds by Darrin Charles Wilson (dark.Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns by Paul Green (refe.Constance remarked that the story had sharpened her appetite considerably. Trask interrupted to let the party know dinner was ready. Neither Everett nor Dufour were ever seen again.Īt that moment, Pendergast's housekeeper Mrs. On a tray they found thirty-two freshly extracted adult teeth. Lighting a lantern, the Pendergasts were horrified to discover that every surface of the house – walls, furniture, and floors – were covered with patterns of intricately arranged children's teeth.Īt the back of the house, the Pendergasts found a workshop with an antique dentist's chair and racks of bone-handled dental instruments. The Dufour house was dark and heavy with the smell of rotten meat. Linnaeus and Aloysius went to Dufour's house to look for Everett. He explained that he had appeased Dufour and convinced him to release Diogenes. The noted explained that after seeing the inside of Dufour's house, Everett could not allow such an abomination to go on living. The next day, Pendergast's father Linnaeus showed him the letter Everett had left. After confirming that the boys' father was returning the next day, Everett took a revolver and left the house. When he called for the housekeeper, his voice was heavily slurred. His cheeks and jaw were sunken and hollow, he had a cut on one cheek and blood on his collar. He locked himself in his room and refused to come out for several days.

Pendergast's Uncle Everett questioned Aloysius and, hearing about the tooth incident, went looking for Diogenes at the home of Monsieur Dufour.ĭiogenes and Everett returned later that day. When Diogenes still hadn't returned the next morning, the police were called. T he next day Diogenes vanished from the house. Aloysius felt guilty and tried to comfort him but Diogenes was inconsolable. Diogenes flew into a panic, afraid that Dufour would come for him. At that moment Aloysius thought he saw a flash of movement at a high window inside the house.īack at home, Aloysius chastised his brother for being superstitious. He considered keeping the tooth and putting it under his own pillow, but instead threw it down a storm drain. He was surprised to find only Diogenes's tooth inside. Aloysius, who had followed Diogenes, snuck onto the porch and inspected the pot. Aloysius ridiculed his younger brother and tried to take the tooth from him, but Diogenes broke away and delivered the tooth as planned.

When Diogenes Pendergast lost a tooth at the age of six, Aloysius found him planning to take it to Dufour's home. They did so not to get money, but out of fear that Dufour come to their homes in the night and take the teeth. Whenever children lost teeth, they would sneak over to the Dufour mansion and leave the teeth in a pot on the front porch. In particular, they regarded Dufour as a kind of sinister tooth fairy. They told stories that he was a cannibal, an ax murderer, a torturer of animals. While Pendergast, Bertin, and Constance Greene waited for dinner, Pendergast told Constance the story of his run-in with Maurus Dufour, a shadowy figure legendary to the children of the French Quarter.ĭufour never left his house and was greatly feared by neighborhood children. Pendergast's boyhood tutor, Monsieur Bertin, came to visit Pendergast at his mansion on 891 Riverside Drive in New York. Extraction is a short story featuring Aloysius Pendergast and his brother Diogenes as young boys. Pendergast tells Constance Greene the story of his frightening encounter with a recluse who lived in New Orleans' French Quarter near Pendergast's childhood home of Rochenoire.

Diogenes pendergast short story