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diff --git a/old/11988-8.txt b/old/11988-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea277f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11988-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6638 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Human Chord, by Algernon Blackwood + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Human Chord + +Author: Algernon Blackwood + +Release Date: April 11, 2004 [EBook #11988] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUMAN CHORD *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + THE HUMAN CHORD + + BY ALGERNON BLACKWOOD + + 1910 + + + + +_To those who hear._ + + + + +Chapter I + + +I + +As a boy he constructed so vividly in imagination that he came to believe +in the living reality of his creations: for everybody and everything he +found names--real names. Inside him somewhere stretched immense +playgrounds, compared to which the hay-fields and lawns of his father's +estate seemed trivial: plains without horizon, seas deep enough to float +the planets like corks, and "such tremendous forests" with "trees like +tall pointed hilltops." He had only to close his eyes, drop his thoughts +inwards, sink after them himself, call aloud and--see. + +His imagination conceived and bore--worlds; but nothing in these worlds +became alive until he discovered its true and living name. The name was +the breath of life; and, sooner or later, he invariably found it. + +Once, having terrified his sister by affirming that a little man he had +created would come through her window at night and weave a peaked cap for +himself by pulling out all her hairs "that hadn't gone to sleep with the +rest of her body," he took characteristic measures to protect her from +the said depredations. He sat up the entire night on the lawn beneath +her window to watch, believing firmly that what his imagination had made +alive would come to pass. + +She did not know this. On the contrary, he told her that the little man +had died suddenly; only, he sat up to make sure. And, for a boy of eight, +those cold and haunted hours must have seemed endless from ten o'clock to +four in the morning, when he crept back to his own corner of the night +nursery. He possessed, you see, courage as well as faith and imagination. + +Yet the name of the little man was nothing more formidable than "Winky!" + +"You might have known he wouldn't hurt you, Teresa," he said. "Any one +with that name would be light as a fly and awf'ly gentle--a regular dicky +sort of chap!" + +"But he'd have pincers," she protested, "or he couldn't pull the hairs +out. Like an earwig he'd be. Ugh!" + +"Not Winky! Never!" he explained scornfully, jealous of his offspring's +reputation. "He'd do it with his rummy little fingers." + +"Then his fingers would have claws at the ends!" she insisted; for no +amount of explanation could persuade her that a person named Winky could +be nice and gentle, even though he were "quicker than a second." She +added that his death rejoiced her. + +"But I can easily make another--such a nippy little beggar, and twice as +hoppy as the first. Only I won't do it," he added magnanimously, "because +it frightens you." + +For to name with him was to create. He had only to run out some distance +into his big mental prairie, call aloud a name in a certain commanding +way, and instantly its owner would run up to claim it. Names described +souls. To learn the name of a thing or person was to know all about them +and make them subservient to his will; and "Winky" could only have been a +very soft and furry little person, swift as a shadow, nimble as a +mouse--just the sort of fellow who _would_ make a conical cap out of a +girl's fluffy hair ... and love the mischief of doing it. + +And so with all things: names were vital and important. To address beings +by their intimate first names, beings of the opposite sex especially, was +a miniature sacrament; and the story of that premature audacity of Elsa +with Lohengrin never failed to touch his sense of awe. "What's in a +name?" for him, was a significant question--a question of life or death. +For to mispronounce a name was a bad blunder, but to name it wrongly was +to miss it altogether. Such a thing had no real life, or at best a +vitality that would soon fade. Adam knew that! And he pondered much in +his childhood over the difficulty Adam must have had "discovering" the +correct appellations for some of the queerer animals.... + +As he grew older, of course, all this faded a good deal, but he never +quite lost the sense of reality in names--the significance of a true +name, the absurdity of a false one, the cruelty of mispronunciation. One +day in the far future, he knew, some wonderful girl would come into his +life, singing her own true name like music, her whole personality +expressing it just as her lips framed the consonants and vowels--and he +would love her. His own name, ridiculous and hateful though it was, would +sing in reply. They would be in harmony together in the literal sense, as +necessary to one another as two notes in the same chord.... + +So he also possessed the mystical vision of the poet. What he +lacked--such temperaments always do--was the sense of proportion and the +careful balance that adjusts cause and effect. And this it is, no doubt, +that makes his adventures such "hard sayings." It becomes difficult to +disentangle what actually did happen from what conceivably might have +happened; what he thinks he saw from what positively _was_. + +His early life--to the disgust of his Father, a poor country +squire--was a distressing failure. He missed all examinations, muddled +all chances, and finally, with £50 a year of his own, and no one to +care much what happened to him, settled in London and took any odd job +of a secretarial nature that offered itself. He kept to nothing for +long, being easily dissatisfied, and ever on the look out for the "job" +that might conceal the kind of adventure he wanted. Once the work of +the moment proved barren of this possibility, he wearied of it and +sought another. And the search seemed prolonged and hopeless, for the +adventure he sought was not a common kind, but something that should +provide him with a means of escape from a vulgar and noisy world that +bored him very much indeed. He sought an adventure that should announce +to him a new heaven and a new earth; something that should confirm, if +not actually replace, that inner region of wonder and delight he +reveled in as a boy, but which education and conflict with a prosaic +age had swept away from his nearer consciousness. He sought, that is, +an authoritative adventure of the soul. + +To look at, one could have believed that until the age of twenty-five he +had been nameless, and that a committee had then sat upon the subject and +selected the sound best suited to describe him: Spinrobin--Robert. For, +had he never seen himself, but run into that inner prairie of his and +called aloud "Robert Spinrobin," an individual exactly resembling him +would surely have pattered up to claim the name. + +He was slight, graceful, quick on his feet and generally alert; took +little steps that were almost hopping, and when he was in a hurry gave +him the appearance of "spinning" down the pavement or up the stairs; +always wore clothes of some fluffy material, with a low collar and +bright red tie; had soft pink cheeks, dancing grey eyes and loosely +scattered hair, prematurely thin and unquestionably like feathers. His +hands and feet were small and nimble. When he stood in his favorite +attitude with hands plunged deep in his pockets, coat-tails slightly +spread and flapping, head on one side and hair disordered, talking in +that high, twittering, yet very agreeable voice of his, it was +impossible to avoid the conclusion that here was--well--Spinrobin, Bobby +Spinrobin, "on the job." + +For he took on any "job" that promised adventure of the kind he sought, +and the queerer the better. As soon as he found that his present +occupation led to nothing, he looked about for something new--chiefly in +the newspaper advertisements. Numbers of strange people advertised in the +newspapers, he knew, just as numbers of strange people wrote letters to +them; and Spinny--so he was called by those who loved him--was a diligent +student of the columns known as "Agony" and "Help wanted." Whereupon it +came about that he was aged twenty-eight, and out of a job, when the +threads of the following occurrence wove into the pattern of his life, +and "led to something" of a kind that may well be cause for question and +amazement. + +The advertisement that formed the bait read as follows:-- + +"WANTED, by Retired Clergyman, Secretarial Assistant with courage and +imagination. Tenor voice and some knowledge of Hebrew essential; single; +_unworldly_. Apply Philip Skale,"--and the address. + +Spinrobin swallowed the bait whole. "Unworldly" put the match, and he +flamed up. He possessed, it seemed, the other necessary qualifications; +for a thin tenor voice, not unmusical, was his, and also a smattering of +Hebrew which he had picked up at Cambridge because he liked the fine, +high-sounding names of deities and angels to be found in that language. +Courage and imagination he lumped in, so to speak, with the rest, and in +the gilt-edged diary he affected he wrote: "Have taken on Skale's odd +advertisement. I like the man's name. The experience may prove an +adventure. While there's change, there's hope." For he was very fond of +turning proverbs to his own use by altering them, and the said diary was +packed with absurd misquotations of a similar kind. + + +II + +A singular correspondence followed, in which the advertiser explained +with reserve that he wanted an assistant to aid him in certain +experiments in sound, that a particular pitch and quality of voice was +necessary (which he could not decide until, of course, he had heard it), +and that the successful applicant must have sufficient courage and +imagination to follow a philosophical speculation "wheresoever it may +lead," and also be "so far indifferent to worldly success as to consider +it of small account compared to spiritual knowledge--especially if such +knowledge appeared within reach and involved worldly sacrifices." He +further added that a life of loneliness in the country would have to be +faced, and that the man who suited him and worked faithfully should find +compensation by inheriting his own "rather considerable property when the +time came." For the rest he asked no references and gave none. In a +question of spiritual values references were mere foolishness. Each must +judge intuitively for himself. + +Spinrobin, as has been said, bit. The letters, written in a fine +scholarly handwriting, excited his interest extraordinarily. He imagined +some dreamer-priest possessed by a singular hobby, searching for things +of the spirit by those devious ways he had heard about from time to time, +a little mad probably into the bargain. The name Skale sounded to him +big, yet he somehow pictured to himself an ascetic-faced man of small +stature pursuing in solitude some impossible ideal. It all attracted him +hugely with its promise of out-of-the-way adventure. In his own phrase it +"might lead to something," and the hints about "experiments in sound" set +chords trembling in him that had not vibrated since the days of his +boyhood's belief in names and the significance of names. The salary, +besides, was good. He was accordingly thrilled and delighted to receive +in reply to his last letter a telegram which read: "Engage you month's +trial both sides. Take single ticket. Skale." + +"I like that 'take single ticket,'" he said to himself as he sped +westwards into Wales, dressed in his usual fluffy tweed suit and +anarchist tie. Upon his knees lay a brand new Hebrew grammar which he +studied diligently all the way to Cardiff, and still carried in his hands +when he changed into the local train that carried him laboriously into +the desolation of the Pontwaun Mountains. "It looks as though he approved +of me already. My name apparently hasn't put him off as it does most +people. Perhaps, through it, he divines the real me!" + +He smoothed down his rebellious hair as he neared the station in the +dusk; but he was surprised to find only a rickety little cart drawn by a +donkey sent to meet him (the house being five miles distant in the +hills), and still more surprised when a huge figure of a man, hatless, +dressed in knickerbockers, and with a large, floating grey beard, strode +down the platform as he gave up his ticket to the station-master and +announced himself as Mr. Philip Skale. He had expected the small, +foxy-faced individual of his imagination, and the shock momentarily +deprived him of speech. + +"Mr. Spinrobin, of course? I am Mr. Skale--Mr. Philip Skale." + +The voice can only be described as booming, it was so deep and vibrating; +but the smile of welcome, where it escaped with difficulty from the +network of beard and moustaches, was winning and almost gentle in +contradistinction to the volume of that authoritative voice. Spinrobin +felt slightly bewildered--caught up into a whirlwind that drove too many +impressions through his brain for any particular one to be seized and +mastered. He found himself shaking hands--Mr. Skale, rather, shaking his, +in a capacious grasp as though it were some small indiarubber ball to be +squeezed and flung away. Mr. Skale flung it away, he felt the shock up +the whole length of his arm to the shoulder. His first impressions, he +declares, he cannot remember--they were too tumultuous--beyond that he +liked both smile and voice, the former making him feel at home, the +latter filling him to the brim with a peculiar sense of well-being. Never +before had he heard his name pronounced in quite the same way; it sounded +dignified, even splendid, the way Mr. Skale spoke it. Beyond this general +impression, however, he can only say that his thoughts and feelings +"whirled." Something emanated from this giant clergyman that was somewhat +enveloping and took him off his feet. The keynote of the man had been +struck at once. + +"How do you do, sir? This _is_ the train you mentioned, I think?" +Spinrobin heard his own thin voice speaking, by way, as it were, of +instinctive apology that he should have put such a man to the trouble of +coming to meet him. He said "sir," it seemed unavoidable; for there was +nothing of the clergyman about him--bishop, perhaps, or archbishop, but +no suggestion of vicar or parish priest. Somewhere, too, in his +presentment he felt dimly, even at the first, there was an element of the +incongruous, a meeting of things not usually found together. The +vigorous open-air life of the mountaineer spoke in the great muscular +body with the broad shoulders and clean, straight limbs; but behind the +brusqueness of manner lay the true gentleness of fine breeding. + +And even here, on this platform of the lonely mountain station, Spinrobin +detected the atmosphere of the scholar, almost of the recluse, shot +through with the strange fires that dropped from the large, lambent, blue +eyes. All these things rushed over the thrilled little secretary with an +effect, as already described, of a certain bewilderment, that left no +single, dominant impression. What remained with him, perhaps, most +vividly, he says, was the quality of the big blue eyes, their luminosity, +their far-seeing expression, their kindliness. They were the eyes of the +true visionary, but in such a personality they proclaimed the mystic who +had retained his health of soul and body. Mr. Skale was surely a +visionary, but just as surely a wholesome man of action--probably of +terrific action. Spinrobin felt irresistibly drawn to him. + +"It is not unpleasant, I trust," the other was saying in his deep +tones, "to find some one to meet you, and," he added with a genial +laugh, "to counteract the first impression of this somewhat melancholy +and inhospitable scenery." His arm swept out to indicate the dreary +little station and the bleak and lowering landscape of treeless hills +in the dusk. + +The new secretary made some appropriate reply, his sense of loneliness +already dissipated in part by the unexpected welcome. And they fell to +arrangements about the luggage. "You won't mind walking," said Mr. Skale, +with a finality that anticipated only agreement. "It's a short five +miles. The donkey-cart will take the portmanteau." Upon which they +started off at a pace that made the little man wonder whether he could +possibly keep it up. "We shall get in before dark," explained the other, +striding along with ease, "and Mrs. Mawle, my housekeeper, will have tea +ready and waiting for us." Spinrobin followed, panting, thinking vaguely +of the other employers he had known--philanthropists, bankers, ambitious +members of Parliament, and all the rest--commonplace individuals to a +man; and then of the immense and towering figure striding just ahead, +shedding about him this vibrating atmosphere of power and whirlwind, +touched so oddly here and there with a vein of gentleness that was almost +sweetness. Never before had he known any human being who radiated such +vigor, such big and beneficent fatherliness, yet for all the air of +kindliness something, too, that touched in him the sense of awe. Mr. +Skale, he felt, was a very unusual man. + +They went on in the gathering dusk, talking little but easily. Spinrobin +felt "taken care of." Usually he was shy with a new employer, but this +man inspired much too large a sensation in him to include shyness, or any +other form of petty self-consciousness. He felt more like a son than a +secretary. He remembered the wording of the advertisement, the phrases of +the singular correspondence--and wondered. "A remarkable personality," he +thought to himself as he stumbled through the dark after the object of +his reflections; "simple--yet tremendous! A giant in all sorts of ways +probably--" Then his thought hesitated, floundered. There was something +else he divined yet could not name. He felt out of his depth in some +entirely new way, in touch with an order of possibilities larger, more +vast, more remote than any dreams his imagination even had yet envisaged. +All this, and more, the mere presence of this retired clergyman poured +into his receptive and eager little soul. + +And very soon it was that these nameless qualities began to assert +themselves, completing the rout of Spinrobin's moderate powers of +judgment. No practical word as to the work before them, or the duties of +the new secretary, had yet passed between them. They walked along +together, chatting as equals, acquaintances, almost two friends might +have done. And on the top of the hill, after a four-mile trudge, they +rested for the first time, Spinrobin panting and perspiring, trousers +tucked up and splashed yellow with mud; Mr. Skale, legs apart, beard +flattened by the wind about his throat, and thumbs in the slits of his +waistcoat as he looked keenly about him over the darkening landscape. +Treeless and desolate hills rose on all sides. A few tumbled-down +cottages of grey stone lay scattered upon the lower slopes among patches +of shabby and forlorn cultivation. Here and there an outcrop of rock ran +skywards into somber and precipitous ridges. The October wind passed to +and fro over it all, mournfully singing, and driving loose clouds that +seemed to drop weighted shadows among the peaks. + + +III + +And it was here that Mr. Skale stopped abruptly, looked about him, and +then down at his companion. + +"Bleak and lonely--this great spread of bare mountain and falling +cliff," he observed half to himself, half to the other; "but fine, very, +very fine." He exhaled deeply, then inhaled as though the great draught +of air was profoundly satisfying. He turned to catch his companion's +eye. "There's a savage and desolate beauty here that uplifts. It helps +the mind to dwell upon the full sweep of life instead of getting dwarfed +and lost among its petty details. Pretty scenery is not good for the +soul." And again he inhaled a prodigious breastful of the mountain air. +"This is." + +"But an element of terror in it, perhaps, sir," suggested the secretary +who, truth to tell, preferred his scenery more smiling, and who, +further, had been made suddenly aware that in this somber setting of +bleak and elemental nature the great figure of his future employer +assumed a certain air of grandeur that was a little too awe-inspiring to +be pleasant. + +"In all profound beauty there must be that," the clergyman was saying; +"fine terror, I mean, of course--just enough to bring out the littleness +of man by comparison." + +"Perhaps, yes," agreed Spinrobin. His own insignificance seemed +peculiarly apparent at that moment in contrast to Mr. Skale who had +become part and parcel of the rugged landscape. Spinrobin was a lost atom +whirling somewhere outside on his own account, whereas the other seemed +oddly in touch with it, almost merged and incorporated into it. With +those deep breaths the clergyman absorbed something of this latent power +about them--then gave it out again. It broke over his companion like a +wave. Elemental force of some kind emanated from that massive human +figure beside him. + +The wind came tearing up the valley and swept past them with a rush as +of mighty wings. Mr. Skale drew attention to it. "And listen to that!" +he said. "How it leaps, singing, from the woods in the valley up to +those gaunt old cliffs yonder!" He pointed. His beard blew suddenly +across his face. With his bare head and shaggy flying hair, his big eyes +and bold aquiline nose, he presented an impressive figure. Spinrobin +watched him with growing amazement, aware that an enthusiasm scarcely +warranted by the wind and scenery had passed into his manner. In his own +person, too, he thought he experienced a birth of something similar--a +little wild rush of delight he was unable to account for. The voice of +his companion, pointing out the house in the valley below, again +interrupted his thoughts. + +"How the mountains positively eat it up. It lies in their very jaws," +and the secretary's eyes, traveling into the depths, made out a cluster +of grey stone chimneys and a clearing in the woods that evidently +represented lawns. The phrase "courage and imagination" flashed unbidden +into his mind as he realized the loneliness of the situation, and for the +hundredth time he wondered what in the world could be the experiments +with sound that this extraordinary man pursued in this isolated old +mansion among the hills. + +"Buried, sir, rather," he suggested. "I can only just see it--" + +"And inaccessible," Mr. Skale interrupted him. "Hard to get at. No one +comes to disturb; an ideal place for work. In the hollows of these hills +a man may indeed seek truth and pursue it, for the world does not enter +here." He paused a moment. "I hope, Mr. Spinrobin," he added, turning +towards him with that gentle smile his shaggy visage sometimes wore, "I +hope you will not find it too lonely. We have no visitors, I mean; +nothing but our own little household of four." + +Spinrobin smiled back. Even at this stage he admits he was exceedingly +anxious to suit. Mr. Skale, in spite of his marked peculiarities, +inspired him with confidence. His personal attraction was growing every +minute; that vague awe he roused probably only increased it. He wondered +who the "four" might be. + +"There's nothing like solitude for serious work, sir," replied the +younger man, stifling a passing uneasiness. + +And with that they plunged down the hillside into the valley, Mr. Skale +leading the way at a terrific pace, shouting out instructions and +warnings from time to time that echoed from the rocks as though voices +followed them down from the mountains. The darkness swallowed them, they +left the wind behind; the silence that dwells in the folded hills fell +about their steps; the air grew less keen; the trees multiplied, +gathering them in with fingers of mist and shadow. Only the clatter of +their boots on the rocky path, and the heavy bass of the clergyman's +voice shouting instructions from time to time, broke the stillness. +Spinrobin followed the big dark outline in front of him as best he could, +stumbling frequently. With countless little hopping steps he dodged along +from point to point, a certain lucky nimbleness in his twinkling feet +saving him from many a tumble. + +"All right behind there?" Mr. Skale would thunder. + +"All right, thanks, Mr. Skale," he would reply in his thin tenor, +"I'm coming." + +"Come along, then!" And on they would go faster than before, till in due +course they emerged from the encircling woods and reached the more open +ground about the house. Somehow, in the jostling relations of the walk, a +freedom of intercourse had been established that no amount of formal talk +between four walls could have accomplished. They scraped their dirty +boots vigorously on the iron mat. + +"Tired?" asked the clergyman, kindly. + +"Winded, Mr. Skale, thank you--nothing more," was the reply. He looked up +at the square mass of the house looming dark against the sky, and the +noise his companion made opening the door--the actual rattle of the iron +knob did it--suddenly brought to him a clear realization of two things: +First, he understood that the whole way from the station Mr. Skale had +been watching him closely, weighing, testing, proving him, though by ways +and methods so subtle that they had escaped his observation at the time; +secondly, that he was already so caught in the network of this +personality, vaster and more powerful than his own, that escape if he +desired it would be exceedingly difficult. Like a man in a boat upon the +upper Niagara river, he already felt the tug and suction of the current +below--the lust of a great adventure drawing him forward. Mr. Skale's +hand upon his shoulder as they entered the house was the symbol of +_that_. The noise of the door closing behind him was the passing of the +last bit of quiet water across which a landing to the bank might still +have been possible. + +Faint streamers from the dark, inscrutable house of fear reached him even +then and left their vague, undecipherable signatures upon the surface of +his soul. The forces that vibrated so strangely in the atmosphere of Mr. +Skale were already playing about his own person, gathering him in like a +garment. Yet while he shuddered, he liked it. Was he not already losing +something of his own insignificant and diminutive self? + + +IV + +The clergyman, meanwhile, had closed the heavy door, shutting out the +darkness, and now led the way across a large, flagged hall into a room, +ablaze with lamp and fire, the walls lined thickly with books, furnished +cozily if plainly. The laden tea table, and a kettle hissing merrily on +the hob, were pleasant to look upon, but what instantly arrested the gaze +of the secretary was the face of the old woman in cap and +apron--evidently the housekeeper already referred to as "Mrs." Mawle--who +stood waiting to pour out tea. For about her worn and wrinkled +countenance there lay an indefinable touch of something that hitherto he +had seen only in pictures of the saints by the old masters. What +attracted his attention, and held it so arrestingly, was this singular +expression of happiness, aye, of more than mere happiness--of joy and +peace and blessed surety, rarely, if ever, seen upon a human face alive, +and only here and there suggested behind that mask of repose which death +leaves so tenderly upon the features of those few who have lived their +lives to noblest advantage. + +Spinrobin caught his breath a little, and stared. Aged and lined as it +unquestionably was, he caught that ineffable suggestion of radiance about +it which proclaimed an inner life that had found itself and was in +perfect harmony with outer things: a life based upon certain knowledge +and certain hope. It wore a gentle whiteness he could find only one word +to describe--glory. And the moment he saw it there flashed across him the +recognition that this was what Mr. Skale also possessed. That giant, +athletic, vigorous man, and this bent, worn old woman both had it. He +wondered with a rush of sudden joy what produced it;--whether it might +perhaps one day be his too. The flame of his own spirit leapt within him. + +And, so wondering, he turned to look at the clergyman. In the softer +light of fire and lamp his face had the appearance of forty rather than +sixty as he had first judged; the eyes, always luminous, shone with +health and enthusiasm; a great air of youth and vitality glowed about +him. It was a fine head with that dominating nose and the shaggy tangle +of hair and beard; very big, fatherly and protective he looked, a quite +inexpressible air of tenderness mingled in everywhere with the strength. +Spinrobin felt immensely drawn to him as he looked. With such a leader he +could go anywhere, do anything. There, surely, was a man whose heart was +set not upon the things of this world. + +An introduction to the housekeeper interrupted his reflections; it did +not strike him as at all out of the way; doubtless she was more mother +than domestic to the household. At the name of "Mrs." Mawle +(courtesy-title, obviously), he rose and bowed, and the old woman, +looking from one to the other, smiled becomingly, curtseyed, put her cap +straight, and turned to the teapot again. She said nothing. + +"The only servant I have, practically," explained the clergyman, "cook, +butler, housekeeper and tyrant all in one; and, with her niece, the only +other persons in the house besides ourselves. A very simple _ménage_, you +see, Mr. Spinrobin. I ought to warn you, too, by-the-by," he added, "that +she is almost stone deaf, and has only got the use of one arm, as perhaps +you noticed. Her left arm is"--he hesitated for a fraction of a +second--"withered." + +A passing wonder as to what the niece would be like accompanied the +swallowing of his buttered toast and tea, but the personalities of Mr. +Skale and his housekeeper had already produced emotions that prevented +this curiosity acquiring much strength. He could deal with nothing more +just yet. Bewilderment obstructed the way, and in his room before dinner +he tried in vain to sort out the impressions that so thickly flooded him, +though without any conspicuous degree of success. The walls of his +bedroom, like those of corridor and hall, were bare; the furniture solid +and old-fashioned; scanty, perhaps, yet more than he was accustomed to; +and the spaciousness was very pleasant after the cramped quarters of +stuffy London lodgings. He unpacked his few things, arranged them with +neat precision in the drawers of the tallboy, counted his shirts, socks, +and ties, to see that all was right, and then drew up an armchair and +toasted his toes before the comforting fire. He tried to think of many +things, and to decide numerous little questions roused by the events of +the last few hours; but the only thing, it seems, that really occupied +his mind, was the rather overpowering fact that he was--with Mr. Skale +and in Mr. Skale's house; that he was there on a month's trial; that the +nature of the work in which he was to assist was unknown, immense, +singular; and that he was already being weighed in the balances by his +uncommon and gigantic employer. In his mind he used this very adjective. +There was something about the big clergyman--titanic. + +He was in the middle of a somewhat jumbled consideration about "Knowledge +of Hebrew--tenor voice--courage and imagination--unworldly," and so +forth, when a knock at the door announced Mrs. Mawle who came to inform +him that dinner was ready. She stood there, a motherly and pleasant +figure in black, and she addressed him in the third person. "If Mr. +Spinrobin will please to come down," she said, "Mr. Skale is waiting. Mr. +Skale is always _quite_ punctual." She always spoke thus, in the third +person; she never used the personal pronoun if it could be avoided. She +preferred the name direct, it seemed. And as Spinrobin passed her on the +way out, she observed further, looking straight into his eyes as she said +it: "and should Mr. Spinrobin have need of anything, _that_," indicating +it, "is the bell that rings in the housekeeper's room. Mrs. Mawle can see +it wag, though she can't hear it. Day or night," she added with a faint +curtsey, "and no trouble at all, just as with the other gentlemen--" + +So there had been other gentlemen, other secretaries! He thanked her with +a nod and a smile, and hurried pattering downstairs in a neat blue suit, +black silk socks and a pair of bright new pumps, Mr. Skale having told +him not to dress. The phrase "day or night," meanwhile, struck him as +significant and peculiar. He remembered it later. At the moment he merely +noted that it added one more to the puzzling items that caused his +bewilderment. + + +V + +Before he had gone very far, however, there came another--crowningly +perplexing. For he was halfway down the darkened passage, making for the +hall that glimmered beyond like the mouth of a cave, when, without the +smallest warning, he became suddenly conscious that something attractive +and utterly delicious had invaded the stream of his being. It came from +nowhere--inexplicably, and at first it took the form of a naked sensation +of delight, keen as a thrill of boyhood days. There passed into him very +swiftly something that satisfied. "I mean, whatever it was," he says, "I +couldn't have asked or wanted more of it. It was all there, complete, +supreme, sufficient." And the same instant he saw close beside him, in +the comparative gloom of the narrow corridor, a vivid, vibrating picture +of a girl's face, pale as marble, of flower-like beauty, with dark +voluminous hair and large grey eyes that met his own from behind a +wavering net of eyelashes. Down to the shoulders he saw her. + +Erect and motionless she stood against the wall to let him pass--this +slim young girl whose sudden and unexpected presence had so electrified +him. Her eyes followed him like those of a picture, but she neither bowed +nor curtseyed, and the only movement she made was the slight turning of +the head and eyes as he went by. It was extraordinarily effective, this +silent and delightful introduction, for swift as lightning, and with +lightning's terrific and incalculable surety of aim, she leapt into his +heart with the effect of a blinding and complete possession. + +It was, of course, he realized, the niece--the fourth member of the +household, and the first clear thought to disentangle itself from the +resultant jumble of emotions was his instinctive wonder what her name +might be. How was this delightful apparition called? This was the +question that ran and danced in his blood. In another minute he felt sure +he would discover it. It must begin (he felt sure of that) with an M. + +He did not pause, or alter his pace. He made no sign of recognition. +Their eyes swallowed each other for a brief moment as he passed--and +then he was pattering with quick, excited steps down the passage beyond, +and the girl was left out of sight in the shadows behind him. He did not +even turn back to look, for in some amazing sense she seemed to move on +beside him, as though some portion of her had merged into his being. He +carried her on with him. Some sweet and marvelous interchange they had +undergone together. He felt strangely blessed, soothed inwardly, made +complete, and more than twice on the way down the name he knew must +belong to her almost sprang up and revealed itself--yet never quite. He +knew it began with M, even with Mir--but could get nothing more. The +rest evaded him. He divined only a portion of the name. He had seen only +a portion of her form. + +The first syllable, however, sang in him with an exquisitely sweet +authority. He was aware of some glorious new thing in the penetralia of +his little spirit, vibrating with happiness. Some portion of himself sang +with it. "For it really did vibrate," he said, "and no other word +describes it. It vibrated like music, like a string; as though when I +passed her she had taken a bow and drawn it across the strings of my +inmost being to make them sing...." + +"Come," broke in the sonorous voice of the clergyman whom he found +standing in the hall; "I've been waiting for you." + +It was said, not complainingly nor with any idea of fault-finding, but +rather--both tone and manner betrayed it--as a prelude to something of +importance about to follow. Somewhat impatiently Mr. Skale took his +companion by the arm and led him forwards; on the stone floor Spinrobin's +footsteps sounded light and dancing, like a child's. The clergyman +strode. At the dining room door he stopped, turning abruptly, and at the +same instant the figure of the young girl glided noiselessly towards +them from the mouth of the dark corridor where she had been waiting. + +Her entry, again, was curiously effective; like a beautiful thought in a +dream she moved into the hall, and into Spinrobin's life. Moreover, as +she came wholly into view in the light, he felt, as positively as though +he heard it uttered, that he knew her name complete. The first syllable +had come to him in the passageway when he saw her partly, and the feeling +of dread that "Mir--" might prove to be part of "Miranda," "Myrtle," or +some other enormity, passed instantly. These would only have been gross +and cruel misnomers. Her right name--the only one that described her +soul--must end, as it began, with M. It flashed into his mind, and at the +same moment Mr. Skale picked it off his very lips. + +"Miriam," he said in deep tones, rolling the name along his mouth so as +to extract every shade of sound belonging to it, "this is Mr. Spinrobin +about whom I told you. He is coming, I hope, to help us." + + +VI + +At first Spinrobin was only aware of the keen delight produced in him by +the manner of Skale's uttering her name, for it entered his consciousness +with a murmuring, singing sound that continued on in his thoughts like a +melody. His racing blood carried it to every portion of his body. He +heard her name, not with his ears alone but with his whole person--a +melodious, haunting phrase of music that thrilled him exquisitely. Next, +he knew that she stood close before him, shaking his hand, and looking +straight into his eyes with an expression of the most complete trust and +sympathy imaginable, and that he felt a well-nigh irresistible desire to +draw her yet closer to him and kiss her little shining face. +Thirdly--though the three impressions were as a matter of fact almost +simultaneous--that the huge figure of the clergyman stood behind them, +watching with the utmost intentness and interest, like a keen and alert +detective eager for some betrayal of evidence, inspired, however, not by +mistrust, but by a very zealous sympathy. + +He understood that this meeting was of paramount importance in Mr. +Skale's purpose. + +"How do you do, Mr. Spinrobin," he heard a soft voice saying, and the +commonplace phrase served to bring him back to a more normal standard of +things. But the tone in which she said it caused him a second thrill +almost more delightful than the first, for the quality was low and fluty, +like the gentle note of some mellow wind instrument, and the caressing +way she pronounced his name was a revelation. Mr. Skale had known how to +make it sound dignified, but this girl did more--she made it sound alive. +"I will give thee a new name" flashed into his thoughts, as some +memory-cell of boyhood discharged its little burden most opportunely and +proceeded to refill itself. + +The smile of happiness that broke over Spinrobin's face was certainly +reflected in the eyes that gazed so searchingly into his own, without the +smallest sign of immodesty, yet without the least inclination to drop the +eyelids. The two natures ran out to meet each other as naturally as two +notes of music run to take their places in a chord. This slight, +blue-eyed youth, light of hair and sensitive of spirit, and this slim, +dark-skinned little maiden, with the voice of music and the wide-open +grey eyes, understood one another from the very first instant their +atmospheres touched and mingled; and the big Skale, looking on intently +over their very shoulders, saw that it was good and smiled down upon +them, too, in his turn. + +"The harmony of souls and voices is complete," he said, but in so low a +tone that the secretary did not hear it. Then, with a hand on a shoulder +of each, he half pushed them before him into the dining room, his whole +face running, as it were, into a single big smile of contentment. The +important event had turned out to his entire satisfaction. He looked like +some beneficent father, well pleased with his two children. + +But Spinrobin, as he moved beside the girl and heard the rustle of her +dress that almost touched him, felt as though he stood upon a sliding +platform that was moving ever quicker, and that the adventure upon which +he was embarked had now acquired a momentum that nothing he could do +would ever stop. And he liked it. It would carry him out of himself into +something very big.... + +And at dinner, where he sat opposite to the girl and studied her face +closely, Mr. Skale, he was soon aware, was occupied in studying the two +of them even more closely. He appeared always to be listening to their +voices. They spoke little enough, however, only their eyes met +continually, and when they did so there was no evidence of a desire to +withdraw. Their gaze remained fastened on one another, on her part +without shyness, without impudence on his. That Mr. Skale wished for them +an intimate and even affectionate understanding was evident, and the +secretary warmed to him on that account more than ever, if on no other. + +It surprised him too--when he thought of it, which was rarely--that a +girl who was perforce of humble origin could carry herself with an air of +such complete and natural distinction, and prove herself so absolutely +"the lady." For there was something about her of greater value than any +mere earthly rank or class could confer; her spirit was in its very +essence distinguished, perfectly simple, yet strong with a great and +natural pride. It never occurred to her soul to doubt its own great +value--or to question that of others. She somehow or other made the +little secretary feel of great account. He had never quite realized his +own value before. Her presence, her eyes, her voice served to bring it +out. And a very curious detail that he always mentions just at this point +is the fact that it never occurred to him to wonder what her surname +might be, or whether, indeed, she had one at all. Her name, Miriam, +seemed sufficient. The rest of her--if there was any other part of her +not described by those three syllables--lay safely and naturally included +somewhere in _his own_ name. "Spinrobin" described her as well as +himself. But "Miriam" completed his own personality and at the same time +extended it. He felt all wrapped up and at peace with her. With Philip +Skale, Mrs. Mawle and Miriam, he, Robert Spinrobin, felt that he +naturally belonged as "one of the family." They were like the four notes +in the chord: Skale, the great bass; Mawle, the mellow alto; himself and +Miriam, respectively, the echoing tenor and the singing soprano. The +imagery by which, in the depths of his mind, he sought to interpret to +himself the whole singular business ran, it seems, even then to music and +the analogies of music. + +The meal was short and very simple. Mrs. Mawle carved the joint at the +end of the table, handed the vegetables and looked after their wants with +the precision of long habit. Her skill, in spite of the withered arm, was +noteworthy. They talked little, Mr. Skale hardly at all. Miriam spoke +from time to time across the table to the secretary. She did not ask +questions, she stated facts, as though she already knew all about his +feelings and tastes. She may have been twenty years of age, perhaps, but +in some way she took him back to childhood. And she said things with the +simple audacity of a child, ignoring Mr. Skale's presence. It seemed to +the secretary as if he had always known her. + +"I knew just how you would look," she said, without a trace of shyness, +"the moment I heard your name. And you got my name very quickly, too?" + +"Only part of it, at first--" + +"Oh yes; but when you saw me completely you got it all," she interrupted. +"And I like your name," she added, looking him full in the eye with her +soft grey orbs; "it tells everything." + +"So does yours, you know." + +"Oh, of course," she laughed; "Mr. Skale gave it to me the day I +was born." + +"I _heard_ it," put in the clergyman, speaking almost for the first time. +And the talk dropped again, the secretary's head fairly whirling. + +"You used it all, of course, as a little boy," she said presently again; +"names, I mean?" + +"Rather," he replied without hesitation; "only I've rather lost it +since--" + +"It will come back to you here. It's so splendid, all this world of +sound, and makes everything seem worth while. But you lose your way at +first, of course; especially if you are out of practice, as you must be." + +Spinrobin did not know what to say. To hear this young girl make use of +such language took his breath away. He became aware that she was talking +with a purpose, seconding Mr. Skale in the secret examination to which +the clergyman was all the time subjecting him. Yet there was no element +of alarm in it all. In the room with these two, and with the motherly +figure of the housekeeper busying about to and fro, he felt at home, +comforted, looked after--more even, he felt at his best; as though the +stream of his little life were mingling in with a much bigger and +worthier river, a river, moreover, in flood. But it was the imagery of +music again that most readily occurred to him. He felt that the note of +his own little personality had been caught up into the comforting bosom +of a complete chord.... + + +VII + +"Mr. Spinrobin," suddenly sounded soft and low across the table, and, +thrilled to hear the girl speak his name, he looked up quickly and found +her very wide-opened eyes peering into his. Her face was thrust forward a +little as she leaned over the table in his direction. + +As he gazed she repeated his name, leisurely, quietly, and even more +softly than before: "Mr. Spinrobin." But this time, as their eyes met and +the syllables issued from her lips, he noticed that a singular +after-sound--an exceedingly soft yet vibrant overtone--accompanied it. +The syllables set something quivering within him, something that sang, +running of its own accord into a melody to which his rising pulses beat +time and tune. + +"Now, please, speak my name," she added. "Please look straight at me, +straight into my eyes, and pronounce _my_ name." + +His lips trembled, if ever so slightly, as he obeyed. + +"Miriam ..." he said. + +"Pronounce each syllable very distinctly and very slowly," she said, her +grey eyes all over his burning face. + +"Mir ... i ... am," he repeated, looking in the center of the eyes +without flinching, and becoming instantly aware that his utterance +of the name produced in himself a development and extension of the +original overtones awakened by her speaking of his own name. It was +wonderful ... exquisite ... delicious. He uttered it again, and then +heard that she, too, was uttering his at the same moment. Each spoke the +other's name. He could have sworn he heard the music within him leap +across the intervening space and transfer itself to her ... and that he +heard his own name singing, too, in _her_ blood. + +For the names were true. By this soft intoning utterance they seemed to +pass mutually into the secret rhythm of that Eternal Principle of Speech +which exists behind the spoken sound and is independent of its means of +manifestation. Their central beings, screened and limited behind their +names, knew an instant of synchronous rhythmical vibration. It was their +introduction absolute to one another, for it was an instant of naked +revelation. + +"Spinrobin...." + +"Miriam...." + + +VIII + +... A great volume of sound suddenly enveloped and caught away the two +singing names, and the spell was broken. Miriam dropped her eyes; +Spinrobin looked up. It was Mr. Skale's voice upon them with a shout. + +"Splendid! splendid!" he cried; "your voices, like your names, are made +for one another, in quality, pitch, accent, everything." He was +enthusiastic rather than excited; but to Spinrobin, taking part in this +astonishing performance, to which the other two alone held the key, it +all seemed too perplexing for words. The great bass crashed and boomed +for a moment about his ears; then came silence. The test, or whatever it +was, was over. It had been successful. + +Mr. Skale, his face still shining with enthusiasm, turned towards him. +Miriam, equally happy, watched, her hands folded in her lap. + +"My dear fellow," exclaimed the clergyman, half rising in his chair, "how +mad you must think us! How mad you must think us! I can only assure you +that when you know more, as you soon shall, you will understand the +importance of what has just taken place...." + +He said a good deal more that Spinrobin did not apparently quite take in. +He was too bewildered. His eyes sought the girl where she sat opposite, +gazing at him. For all its pallor, her face was tenderly soft and +beautiful; more pure and undefiled, he thought, than any human +countenance he had ever seen, and sweet as the face of a child. Utterly +unstained it was. A similar light shone in the faces of Skale and Mrs. +Mawle. In their case it had forged its way through the more or less +defiling garment of a worn and experienced flesh. But the light in +Miriam's eyes and skin was there because it had never been extinguished. +She had retained her pristine brilliance of soul. Through the little +spirit of the perplexed secretary ran a thrill of genuine worship and +adoration. + +"Mr. Skale's coffee is served in the library," announced the voice of the +housekeeper abruptly behind them; and when Spinrobin turned again he +discovered that Miriam had slipped from the room unobserved and was gone. + +Mr. Skale took his companion's arm and led the way towards the hall. + +"I am glad you love her," was his astonishing remark. "It is the first +and most essential condition of your suiting me." + +"She is delightful, wonderful, charming, sir--" + +"Not 'sir,' if you please," replied the clergyman, standing aside at the +threshold for his guest to pass; "I prefer the use of the name, you know. +I think it is important." + +And he closed the library door behind them. + + + + +Chapter II + + +I + +For some minutes they sat in front of the fire and sipped their coffee in +silence. The secretary felt that the sliding platform on which he was +traveling into this extraordinary adventure had been going a little too +fast for him. Events had crowded past before he had time to look squarely +at them. He had lost his bearings rather, routed by Miriam's beauty and +by the amazing way she talked to him. Had she lived always inside his +thoughts she could not have chosen words better calculated to convince +him that they were utterly in sympathy one with the other. Mr. Skale, +moreover, approved heartily. The one thing Spinrobin saw clearly through +it all was that himself and Miriam--their voices, rather--were necessary +for the success of the clergyman's mysterious experiments. Only, while +Miriam, little witch, knew all about it, he, candidate on trial, knew as +yet--nothing. + +And now, as they sat opposite one another in the privacy of the library, +Spinrobin, full of confidence and for once proud of his name and +personality, looked forward to being taken more into the heart of the +affair. Things advanced, however, more slowly than he desired. Mr. +Skale's scheme was too big to be hurried. + +The clergyman did not smoke, but his companion, with the other's ready +permission, puffed gently at a small cigarette. Short, rapid puffs he +took, as though the smoke was afraid to enter beyond the front teeth, and +with one finger he incessantly knocked off the ashes into his saucer, +even when none were there to fall. On the table behind them gurgled the +shaded lamp, lighting their faces from the eyes downwards. + +"Now," said Mr. Skale, evidently not aware that he thundered, "we can +talk quietly and undisturbed." He caught his beard in a capacious hand, +in such a way that the square outline of his chin showed through the +hair. His voice boomed musically, filling the room. Spinrobin listened +acutely, afraid even to cross his legs. A genuine pronouncement, he felt, +was coming. + +"A good many years ago, Mr. Spinrobin," he said simply, "when I was a +curate of a country parish in Norfolk, I made a discovery--of a +revolutionary description--a discovery in the world of real things, that +is, of spiritual things." + +He gazed fixedly over the clutched beard at his companion, apparently +searching for brief, intelligible phrases. "But a discovery, the +development of which I was obliged to put on one side until I inherited +with this property the means and leisure which enabled me to continue my +terrific--I say purposely terrific--researches. For some years now I have +been quietly at work here absorbed in my immense pursuit." And again he +stopped. "I have reached a point, Mr. Spinrobin--" + +"Yes," interjected the secretary, as though the mention of his name +touched a button and produced a sound. "A point--?" + +"Where I need the assistance of some one with a definite quality of +voice--a man who emits a certain note--a certain tenor note." He released +his beard, so that it flew out with a spring, at the same moment +thrusting his head forward to drive home the announcement effectively. + +Spinrobin crossed his legs with a fluttering motion, hastily. "As you +advertised," he suggested. + +The clergyman bowed. + +"My efforts to find the right man," continued the enthusiast, leaning +back in his chair, "have now lasted a year. I have had a dozen men down +here, each on a month's trial. None of them suited. None had the +requisite quality of voice. With a single exception, none of them could +stand the loneliness, the seclusion; and without exception, all of them +were too worldly to make sacrifices. It was the salary they wanted. The +majority, moreover, confused imagination with fancy, and courage with +mere audacity. And, most serious of all, not one of them passed the test +of--Miriam. She harmonized with none of them. They were discords one and +all. You, Mr. Spinrobin, are the first to win acceptance. The instant she +heard your name she cried for you. And she knows. She sings the soprano. +She took you into the chord." + +"I hope indeed--" stammered the flustered and puzzled secretary, and then +stopped, blushing absurdly. "You claim for me far more than I should dare +to claim for myself," he added. The reference to Miriam delighted him, +and utterly destroyed his judgment. He longed to thank the girl for +having approved him. "I'm glad my voice--er--suits your--chord." In his +heart of hearts he understood something of what Mr. Skale was driving at, +yet was half-ashamed to admit it even to himself. In this twentieth +century it all seemed so romantic, mystical, and absurd. He felt it was +all half-true. If only he could have run back into that great "mental +prairie" of his boyhood days it might all have been _quite_ true. + +"Precisely," continued Mr. Skale, bringing him back to reality, +"precisely. And now, before I tell you more, you will forgive my asking +you one or two personal questions, I'm sure. We must build securely as we +go, leaving nothing to chance. The grandeur and importance of my +experiments demand it. Afterwards," and his expression changed to a +sudden softness in a way that was characteristic of the man, "you must +feel free to put similar questions to me, as personal and direct as you +please. I wish to establish a perfect frankness between us at the start." + +"Thank you, Mr. Skale. Of course--er--should anything occur to me to +ask--" A momentary bewilderment, caused by the great visage so close to +his own, prevented the completion of the sentence. + +"As to your beliefs, for instance," the clergyman resumed abruptly, +"your religious beliefs, I mean. I must be sure of you on that ground. +What are you?" + +"Nothing--I think," Spinrobin replied without hesitation, remembering how +his soul had bounced its way among the various creeds since Cambridge, +and arrived at its present state of Belief in Everything, yet without any +definite label. "Nothing in particular. Nominally, though--a Christian." + +"You believe in a God?" + +"A Supreme Intelligence, most certainly," was the emphatic reply. + +"And spirits?" + +Spinrobin hesitated. He was a very honest soul. + +"Other life, let me put it," the clergyman helped him; "other beings +besides ourselves?" + +"I have often felt--wondered, rather," he answered carefully, "whether +there might not be other systems of evolution besides humanity. Such +extraordinary Forces come blundering into one's life sometimes, and one +can't help wondering where they come from. I have never formulated any +definite beliefs, however--" + +"Your world is not a blind chaos, I mean?" Mr. Skale put gravely to him, +as though questioning a child. + +"No, no, indeed. There's order and system--" + +"In which you personally count for something of value?" asked the +other quickly. + +"I like to think so," was the apologetic reply. "There's something that +includes me somewhere in a purpose of very great importance--only, of +course, I've got to do my part, and--" + +"Good," Mr. Skale interrupted him. "And now," he asked softly, after +a moment's pause, leaning forward, "what about death? Are you afraid +of death?" + +Spinrobin started visibly. He began to wonder where this extraordinary +catechism was going to lead. But he answered at once: he had thought out +these things and knew where he stood. + +"Only of its possible pain," he said, smiling into the bearded visage +before him. "And an immense curiosity, of course--" + +"It does not mean extinction for you--going out like the flame of a +candle, for instance?" + +"I have never been able to believe _that_, Mr. Skale. I continue +somewhere and somehow--forever." + +The cross-examination puzzled him more and more, and through it, for the +first time, he began to feel dimly, ran a certain strain of something not +quite right, not permissible in the biggest sense. It was not the +questions themselves that produced this odd and rather disquieting +impression, but the fact that Mr. Skale was preparing the ground with +such extraordinary thoroughness. This conversation was the first swell, +as it were, rolling mysteriously in upon him from the ocean in whose +deeps the great Experiment lay buried. Forces, tidal in strength, oceanic +in volume, shrouded it just now, but he already felt them. They reached +him through the person of the clergyman. It was these forces playing +through his personality that Spinrobin had been aware of the first moment +they met on the station platform, and had "sensed" even more strongly +during the walk home across the mountains. + +Behind the play of these darker impressions, as yet only vague and +ambiguous, there ran in and out among his thoughts the vein of something +much sweeter. Miriam, with her large grey eyes and silvery voice, was +continually peeping in upon his mind. He wondered where she was and what +she was doing in the big, lonely house. He wished she could have been in +the room to hear his answers and approve them. He felt incomplete without +her. Already he thought of her as the melody to which he was the +accompaniment, two things that ought not to be separated. + +"My point is," Mr. Skale continued, "that, apart from ordinary human +ties, and so forth, you have no intrinsic terror of death--of losing your +present body?" + +"No, no," was the reply, more faintly given than the rest. "I love my +life, but--but--" he looked about him in some confusion for the right +words, still thinking of Miriam--"but I look forward, Mr. Skale; I look +forward." He dropped back into the depths of his armchair and puffed +swiftly at the end of his extinguished cigarette, oblivious of the fact +that no smoke came. + +"The attitude of a brave man," said the clergyman with approval. Then, +looking straight into the secretary's blue eyes, he added with increased +gravity: "And therefore it would not be immoral of me to expose you to an +experiment in which the penalty of a slip would be--death? Or you would +not shrink from it yourself, provided the knowledge to be obtained seemed +worth while?" + +"That's right, sir--Mr. Skale, I mean; that's right," came the answer +after an imperceptible pause. + +The result of the talk seemed to satisfy the clergyman. "You must think +my questions _very_ peculiar," he said, the sternness of his face +relaxing a little, "but it was necessary to understand your exact +position before proceeding further. The gravity of my undertaking demands +it. However, you must not let my words alarm you." He waited a moment, +reflecting deeply. "You must regard them, if you will, as a kind of +test," he resumed, searching his companion's face with eagle eyes, "the +beginning of a series of tests in which your attitude to Miriam and hers +to you, so far as that goes, was the first." + +"Oh, that's all right, Mr. Skale," was his inadequate rejoinder; for the +moment the name of the girl was introduced his thoughts instantly +wandered out to find her. The way the clergyman pronounced it increased +its power, too, for no name he uttered sounded ordinary. There seemed a +curious mingling in the resonant cavity of his great mouth of the +fundamental note and the overtones. + +"Yes, you have the kind of courage that is necessary," Mr. Skale was +saying, half to himself, "the modesty that forgets self, and the +unworldly attitude that is essential. With your help I may encompass +success; and I consider myself wonderfully fortunate to have found you, +wonderfully fortunate...." + +"I'm glad," murmured Spinrobin, thinking that so far he had not learned +anything very definite about his duties, or what it was he had to do to +earn so substantial a salary. Truth to tell, he did not bother much about +that part of it. He was conscious only of three main desires: to pass the +unknown tests, to learn the nature of Mr. Skale's discovery, with the +experiment involved, and--to be with Miriam as much as possible. The +whole affair was so unusual that he had already lost the common standards +of judging. He let the sliding platform take him where it would, and he +flattered himself that he was not fool enough to mistake originality for +insanity. The clergyman, dreamer and enthusiast though he might be, was +as sane as other men, saner than most. + +"I hope to lead you little by little to what I have in view," Mr. Skale +went on, "so that at the end of our trial month you will have learned +enough to enable you to form a decision, yet not enough to--to use my +knowledge should you choose to return to the world." + +It was very frank, but the secretary did not feel offended. He accepted +the explanation as perfectly reasonable. In his mind he knew full well +what his choice would be. This was the supreme adventure he had been so +long a-seeking. No ordinary obstacle could prevent his accepting it. + + +II + +There came a pause of some length, in which Spinrobin found nothing +particular to say. The lamp gurgled; the coals fell softly into the +fender. Then suddenly Mr. Skale rose and stood with his back to the +grate. He gazed down upon the small figure in the chair. He towered +there, a kindly giant, enthusiasm burning in his eyes like lamps. His +voice was very deep, his manner more solemn than before when he spoke. + +"So far, so good," he said, "and now, with your permission, Mr. +Spinrobin, I should like to go a step further. I should like to +take--your note." + +"My note?" exclaimed the other, thinking he had not heard correctly. + +"Your sound, yes," repeated the clergyman. + +"My sound!" piped the little man, vastly puzzled, his voice shrill with +excitement. He dodged about in the depths of his big leather chair, as +though movement might bring explanation. + +Mr. Skale watched him calmly. "I want to get the vibrations of your +voice, and then see what pattern they produce in the sand," he said. + +"Oh, in the sand, yes; quite so," replied the secretary. He remembered +how the vibrations of an elastic membrane can throw dry sand, loosely +scattered upon its surface, into various floral and geometrical figures. +Chladni's figures, he seemed to remember, they were called after their +discoverer. But Mr. Skale's purpose in the main, of course, escaped him. + +"You don't object?" + +"On the contrary, I am greatly interested." He stood up on the mat beside +his employer. + +"I wish to make _quite_ sure," the clergyman added gravely, "that your +voice, your note, is what I think it is--accurately in harmony with +mine and Miriam's and Mrs. Mawle's. The pattern it makes will help to +prove this." + +The secretary bowed in perplexed silence, while Mr. Skale crossed the +room and took a violin from its case. The golden varnish of its ribs and +back gleamed in the lamplight, and when the clergyman drew the bow across +the strings to tune it, smooth, mellow sounds, soft and resonant as +bells, filled the room. Evidently he knew how to handle the instrument. +The notes died away in a murmur. + +"A Guarnerius," he explained, "and a perfect pedigree specimen; it has +the most sensitive structure imaginable, and carries vibrations almost +like a human nerve. For instance, while I speak," he added, laying the +violin upon his companion's hand, "you will feel the vibrations of my +voice run through the wood into your palm." + +"I do," said Spinrobin. It trembled like a living thing. + +"Now," continued Mr. Skale, after a pause, "what I first want is to +receive the vibrations of your own voice in the same way--into my very +pulses. Kindly read aloud steadily while I hold it. Stop reading when I +make a sign. I'll nod, so that the vibrations of my voice won't +interfere." And he handed a notebook to him with quotations entered +neatly in his own handwriting, selected evidently with a purpose, and all +dealing with sound, music, as organized sound, and names. Spinrobin read +aloud; the first quotation from Meredith he recognized, but the others, +and the last one, discussing names, were new to him:-- + +"But _listen in the thought_; so may there come +Conception of a newly-added chord, +Commanding space beyond where ear has home. + +"Everything that the sun shines upon sings or can be made to sing, and +can be heard to sing. Gases, impalpable powders, and woolen stuffs, in +common with other non-conductors of sound, give forth notes of different +pitches when played upon by an intermittent beam of white light. Colored +stuffs will sing in lights of different colors, but refuse to sing in +others. The polarization of light being now accomplished, light and sound +are known to be alike. Flames have a modulated voice and can be made to +sing a definite melody. Wood, stone, metal, skins, fibers, membranes, +every rapidly vibrating substance, _all have in them the potentialities +of musical sound_. + +"Radium receives its energy from, and responds to, radiations which +traverse all space--as piano strings respond to sounds in unison with +their notes. Space is all a-quiver with waves of radiant energy. We +vibrate in sympathy with a few strings here and there--with the tiny +X-rays, actinic rays, light waves, heat waves, and the huge +electromagnetic waves of Hertz and Marconi; but there are great spaces, +numberless radiations, to which we are stone deaf. Some day, a thousand +years hence, we shall know the full sweep of this magnificent harmony. + +"Everything in nature has its name, and he who has the power to call a +thing by its proper name can make it subservient to his will; for its +proper name is not the arbitrary name given to it by man, but the +expression of the totality of its powers and attributes, because the +powers and attributes of each Being are intimately connected with its +means of expression, and between both exists the most exact proportion in +regard to measure, time, and condition." + +The meaning of the four quotations, as he read them, plunged down into +him and touched inner chords very close to his own beliefs. Something of +his own soul, therefore, passed into his voice as he read. He read, that +is to say, with authority. + +A nod from Mr. Skale stopped him just as he was beginning a fifth +passage. Raising the vibrating instrument to his ear, the clergyman first +listened a moment intently. Then he quickly had it under his chin, beard +flowing over it like water, and the bow singing across the strings. The +note he played--he drew it out with that whipping motion of the bow only +possible to a loving expert--was soft and beautiful, long drawn out with +a sweet singing quality. He took it on the G string with the second +finger--in the "fourth position." It thrilled through him, Spinrobin +declares, most curiously and delightfully. It made him happy to hear it. +It was very similar to the singing vibrations he had experienced when +Miriam gazed into his eyes and spoke his name. + +"Thank you," said Mr. Skale, and laid the violin down again. "I've got +the note. You're E flat." + +"E flat!" gasped Spinrobin, not sure whether he was pleased or +disappointed. + +"That's your sound, yes. You're E flat--just as I thought, just as I +hoped. You fit in exactly. It seems too good to be true!" His voice began +to boom again, as it always did when he was moved. He was striding about, +very alert, very masterful, pushing the furniture out of his way, his +eyes more luminous than ever. "It's magnificent." He stopped abruptly and +looked at the secretary with a gaze so enveloping that Spinrobin for an +instant lost his bearings altogether. "It means, my dear Spinrobin," he +said slowly, with a touch of solemnity that woke an involuntary shiver +deep in his listener's being, "that you are destined to play a part, and +an important part, in one of the grandest experiments ever dreamed of by +the heart of man. For the first time since my researches began twenty +years ago I now see the end in sight." + +"Mr. Skale--that _is_ something--indeed," was all the little man could +find to say. + +There was no reason he could point to why the words should have produced +a sense of chill about his heart. It was only that he felt again the huge +groundswell of this vast unknown experiment surging against him, lifting +him from his feet--as a man might feel the Atlantic swells rise with him +towards the stars before they engulfed him forever. It seemed getting a +trifle out of hand, this adventure. Yet it was what he had always longed +for, and his courage must hold firm. Besides, Miriam was involved in it +with him. What could he ask better than to risk his insignificant +personality in some gigantic, mad attempt to plumb the Unknown, with that +slender, little pale-faced Beauty by his side? The wave of Mr. Skale's +enthusiasm swept him away deliciously. + +"And now," he cried, "we'll get your Pattern too. I no longer have any +doubts, but none the less it will be a satisfaction to us both to see it. +It must, I'm sure, harmonize with ours; it must!" + +He opened a cupboard drawer and produced a thin sheet of glass, upon +which he next poured some finely powdered sand out of a paper bag. It +rattled, dry and faint, upon the smooth, hard surface. And while he did +this, he talked rapidly, boomingly, with immense enthusiasm. + +"All sounds," he said, half to himself, half to the astonished secretary, +"create their own patterns. Sound builds; sound destroys; and invisible +sound-vibrations affect concrete matter. For all sounds produce +forms--the forms that correspond to them, as you shall now see. Within +every form lies the silent sound that first called it into view--into +visible shape--into being. Forms, shapes, bodies are the vibratory +activities of _sound made visible_." + +"My goodness!" exclaimed Spinrobin, who was listening like a man in a +dream, but who caught the violence of the clergyman's idea none the less. + +"Forms and bodies are--_solidified Sound_," cried the clergyman in +italics. + +"You say something extraordinary," exclaimed the commonplace Spinrobin in +his shrill voice. "Marvelous!" Vaguely he seemed to remember that +Schelling had called architecture "frozen music." + +Mr. Skale turned and looked at him as a god might look at an +insect--that he loved. + +"Sound, Mr. Spinrobin," he said, with a sudden and effective lowering of +his booming voice, "is the original divine impulsion behind +nature--communicated to language. It is--creative!" + +Then, leaving the secretary with this nut of condensed knowledge to crack +as best he could, the clergyman went to the end of the room in three +strides. He busied himself for a moment with something upon the wall; +then he suddenly turned, his great face aglow, his huge form erect, +fixing his burning eyes upon his distracted companion. + +"In the Beginning," he boomed solemnly, in tones of profound conviction, +"was--the _Word_." He paused a moment, and then continued, his voice +filling the room to the very ceiling. "At the Word of God--at the thunder +of the Voice of God, worlds leaped into being!" Again he paused. "Sound," +he went on, the whole force of his great personality in the phrase, "was +the primordial, creative energy. A sound can call a form into existence. +Forms are the Sound-Figures of archetypal forces--the Word made Flesh." +He stopped, and moved with great soft strides about the room. + +Spinrobin caught the words full in the face. For a space he could not +measure--considerably less than a second, probably--the consciousness of +something unutterably immense, unutterably flaming, rushed tumultuously +through his mind, with wings that bore his imagination to a place where +light was--dazzling, white beyond words. He felt himself tossed up to +Heaven on the waves of a great sea, as the body of strange belief behind +the clergyman's words poured through him.... For somewhere, behind the +incoherence of the passionate language, burned the blaze of a true +thought at white heat--could he but grasp it through the stammering +utterance. + +Then, with equal swiftness, it passed. His present surroundings came +back. He dropped with a dizzy rush from awful spaces ... and was aware +that he was merely--standing on the black, woolly mat before the fire +watching the movements of his new employer, that his pumps were bright +and pointed, his head just level with a dark marble mantelpiece. Dazed, +and a trifle breathless he felt; and at the back of his disordered mind +stirred a schoolboy's memory that the Pythagoreans believed the +universe to have been called out of chaos by Sound, Number, and +Harmony--or something to that effect.... But these huge, fugitive +thoughts that tore through him refused to be seized and dealt with. He +staggered a little, mentally; then, with a prodigious effort, controlled +himself--and watched. + + +III + +Mr. Skale, he saw, had fastened the little sheet of glass by its four +corners to silken strings hanging from the ceiling. The glass plate hung, +motionless and horizontal, in the air with its freight of sand. For +several minutes the clergyman played a series of beautiful modulations in +double-stopping upon the violin. In these the dominating influence was E +flat. Spinrobin was not musical enough to describe it more accurately +than this. Only, with greater skill than he knows, he mentions how Skale +drew out of that fiddle the peculiarly intimate and searching tones by +which strings can reach the spiritual center of a man and make him +respond to delicate vibrations of thoughts beyond his normal gamut.... + +Spinrobin, listening, understood that he was a greater man than he +knew.... + +And the sand on the glass sheet, he next became aware, was shifting, +moving, dancing. He heard the tiny hissing and rattling of the dry +grains. It was uncommonly weird. This visible and practical result +made the clergyman's astonishing words seem true and convincing. That +moving sand brought sanity, yet a certain curious terror of the +unknown into it all. + +A minute later Mr. Skale stopped playing and beckoned to him. + +"See," he said quietly, pointing to the arrangement the particles of +sand had assumed under the influence of the vibrations. "There's your +pattern--your sound made visible. That's your utterance--the Note you +substantially represent and body forth in terms of matter." + +The secretary stared. It was a charming but very simple pattern the lines +of sand had assumed, not unlike the fronds of a delicate fern growing out +of several small circles round the base. + +"So that's my note--made visible!" he exclaimed under his breath. "It's +delightful; it's quite exquisite." + +"That's E flat," returned Mr. Skale in a whisper, so as not to disturb +the pattern; "if I altered the note, the pattern would alter too. E +natural, for instance, would be different. Only, luckily, you are E +flat--just the note we want. And now," he continued, straightening +himself up to his full height, "come over and see mine and Miriam's and +Mrs. Mawle's, and you'll understand what I meant when I said that yours +would harmonize." And in a glass case across the room they examined a +number of square sheets of glass with sand upon them in various patterns, +all rendered permanent by a thin coating of a glue-like transparent +substance that held the particles in position. + +"There you see mine and Miriam's and Mrs. Mawle's," he said, stooping to +look. "They harmonize most beautifully, you observe, with your own." + +It was, indeed, a singular and remarkable thing. The patterns, though all +different, yet combined in some subtle fashion impossible of analysis to +form a complete and well-proportioned Whole--a design--a picture. The +patterns of the clergyman and the housekeeper provided the base and +foreground, those of Miriam and the secretary the delicate +superstructure. The girl's pattern, he noted with a subtle pleasure, was +curiously similar to his own, but far more delicate and waving. Yet, +whereas his was floral, hers was stellar in character; that of the +housekeeper was spiral, and Mr. Skale's he could only describe as a +miniature whirlwind of very exquisite design rising out of apparently +three separate centers of motion. + +"If I could paint over them the color each shade of sound represents," +Mr. Skale resumed, "the tint of each _timbre_, or _Klangfarbe_, as the +Germans call it, you would see better still how we are all grouped +together there into a complete and harmonious whole." + +Spinrobin looked from the patterns to his companion's great face bending +there beside him. Then he looked back again at the patterns. He could +think of nothing quite intelligible to say. He noticed more clearly every +minute that these dainty shapes of sand, stellar, spiral, and floral, +stood to one another in certain definite proportions, in a rising and +calculated ratio of singular beauty. + +"There, before you, lies a true and perfect chord made visible," the +clergyman said in tones thrilling with satisfaction, "--three notes in +harmony with the fundamental sound, myself, and with each other. My dear +fellow, I congratulate you, I congratulate you." + +"Thank you very much, indeed," murmured Spinrobin. "I don't quite +understand it all yet, but it's--it's extraordinarily fascinating and +wonderful." + +Mr. Skale said nothing, and Spinrobin drifted back to his big armchair. A +deep silence pervaded the room for the space of several minutes. In the +heart of that silence lay the mass of direct and vital questions the +secretary burned, yet was afraid, to ask. For such was the plain truth; +he yearned to know, yet feared to hear. The Discovery and the Experiment +of this singular man loomed already somewhat vast and terrible; the +adjective that had suggested itself before returned to him--"not +permissible." ... Of Mr. Skale himself he had no sort of fear, though a +growing and uncommon respect, but of the purpose Mr. Skale had in view +he caught himself thinking more and more, yet without obvious reason, +with a distinct shrinking almost amounting to dismay. But for the fact +that so sweet and gentle a creature as Miriam was traveling the same path +with him, this increased sense of caution would have revealed itself +plainly for what it was--Fear.... + +"I am deeply interested, Mr. Skale," he said at length, breaking first +the silence, "and sympathetic too, I assure you; only--you will forgive +me for saying it--I am, as yet, still rather in the dark as to where all +this is to lead--" The clergyman's eyes, fixed straight upon his own, +again made it difficult to finish the sentence as he wished. + +"Necessarily so, because I can only lead you to my discovery step by +step," replied the other steadily. "I wish you to be thoroughly prepared +for anything that may happen, so that you can deal intelligently with +results that might otherwise overwhelm you." + +"Overwhelm--?" faltered his listener. + +"_Might_, I said. Note carefully my use of words, for they are accurately +chosen. Before I can tell you all I must submit you, for your own sake, +to certain tests--chiefly to the test of Alteration of Form by Sound. It +is somewhat--er--alarming, I believe, the first time. You must be +thoroughly accustomed to these astonishing results before we dare to +approach the final Experiment; so that you will not tremble. For there +can be no rehearsal. The great Experiment can only be made once ... and I +must be as sure as possible that you will feel no terror in the face of +the Unknown." + + +IV + +Spinrobin listened breathlessly. He hesitated a moment after the other +stopped speaking, then slewed round on his slippery chair and faced him. + +"I can understand," he began, "why you want imagination, but you spoke of +courage too? I mean,--is there any immediate cause for alarm? Any +personal danger, for instance, _now_?" For the clergyman's weighty +sentences had made him realize in a new sense the loneliness of his +situation here among these desolate hills. He would appreciate some +assurance that his life was not to be trifled with before he lost the +power to withdraw if he wished to do so. + +"None whatever," replied Mr. Skale with decision, "there is no question +at all of physical personal injury. You must trust me and have a little +patience." His tone and manner were exceedingly grave, yet at the same +time inspired confidence. + +"I do," said Spinrobin honestly. + +Another pause fell between them, longer than the rest; it was broken by +the clergyman. He spoke emphatically, evidently weighing his words with +the utmost care. + +"This Chord," he said simply--yet, for all the simplicity, there ran to +and fro behind his words the sense of unlawful and immense forces +impending--"I need for a stupendous experiment with sound, an experiment +which will lead in turn towards a yet greater and final one. There is no +harm in your knowing that. To produce a certain transcendent result I +want a complex sound--a chord, but a complete and perfect chord in which +each note is sure of itself and absolutely accurate." + +He waited a moment. There was utter silence about them in the room. +Spinrobin held his breath. + +"No instrument can help me; the notes must be human," he resumed in a +lower voice, "and the utterers--pure. For the human voice can produce +sounds 'possessing in some degree the characteristics not only of all +musical instruments, but of all sounds of whatever description.' By means +of this chord I hope to utter a certain sound, a certain _name_, of which +you shall know more hereafter. But a name, as you surely know, need not +be composed of one or two syllables only; a whole symphony may be a name, +and a whole orchestra playing for days, or an entire nation chanting for +years, may be required to pronounce the beginning merely of--of certain +names. Yours, Robert Spinrobin, for instance, I can pronounce in a +quarter of a second; but there may be names so vast, so mighty, that +minutes, days, years even, may be necessary for their full utterance. +There may be names, indeed, which can never be known, for they could +never be uttered--_in time_. For the moment I am content simply to drop +this thought into your consciousness; later you shall understand more. I +only wish you to take in now that I need this perfect chord for the +utterance in due course of a certain complex and stupendous name--the +invocation, that is, of a certain complex and stupendous Force!" + +"I think I understand," whispered the other, afraid to interrupt more. + +"And the difficulty I have experienced in finding the three notes has +been immense. I found Mrs. Mawle--alto; then Miriam I found at birth and +trained her--soprano; and now I have found you, Mr. Spinrobin, and my +chord, with myself as bass, is complete. Your note and Miriam's, soprano +and tenor, are closer than the relations between the other notes, and a +tenor has accordingly been most difficult to find. You can now understand +the importance of your being sympathetic to each other." + +Spinrobin's heart burned within him as he listened. He began to grasp +some sweet mystical meaning in the sense of perfect companionship the +mere presence of the girl inspired. They were the upper notes in the same +chord together, linked in a singing and harmonious relation, the one +necessary to the other. Moreover, in the presence of Mr. Skale and the +housekeeper, bass and alto in the full chord, their completeness was +still more emphasized, and they knew their fullest life. The adventure +promised to be amazingly seductive. He would learn practically the +strange truth that to know the highest life Self must be lost and merged +in something bigger. And was this not precisely what he had so long been +seeking--escape from his own insignificance? + +"And--er--the Hebrew that you require of me, Mr. Skale?" he asked, +returning to practical considerations. + +"Our purposes require a certain knowledge of Hebrew," he answered without +hesitation or demur, "because that ancient language and the magical +resources of sound are profoundly linked. In the actual sounds of many of +the Hebrew letters lies a singular power, unguessed by the majority, +undivined especially, of course, by the mere scholar, but available for +the pure in heart who may discover how to use their extraordinary values. +They constitute, in my view at least, a remnant of the original Chaldaean +mysteries, the lore of that magic which is older than religion. The +secret of this knowledge lies in the _psychic values of sound_; for +Hebrew, the Hebrew of the Bahir, remains in the hierarchy of languages a +direct channel to the unknown and inscrutable forces; and the knowledge +of mighty and supersensual things lies locked up in the correct utterance +of many of its words, letters and phrases. Its correct utterance, mark +well. For knowledge of the most amazing and terrible kind is there, +waiting release by him who knows, and who greatly dares. + +"And you shall later learn that sound is power. The Hebrew alphabet you +must know intimately, and the intricate association of its letters with +number, color, harmony and geometrical form, all of which are but +symbols of the Realities at the very roots of life. The Hebrew alphabet, +Mr. Spinrobin, is a 'discourse in methods of manifestation, of +formation.' In its correct pronunciation lies a way to direct knowledge +of divine powers, and to conditions beyond this physical existence." + +The clergyman's voice grew lower and lower as he proceeded, and the +conviction was unavoidable that he referred to things whereof he had +practical knowledge. To Spinrobin it was like the lifting of a great +veil. As a boy he had divined something of these values of sound and +name, but with the years this knowledge had come to seem fantastic and +unreal. It now returned upon him with the force of a terrific certainty. +That immense old inner playground of his youth, without boundaries or +horizon, rolled up before his mental vision, inviting further and +detailed discovery. + +"With the language, qua language," he continued, "you need not trouble, +but the 'Names' of many things you must know accurately, and especially +the names of the so-called 'Angels'; for these are in reality Forces of +immense potency, vast spiritual Powers, Qualities, and the like, all +evocable by correct utterance of their names. This language, as you will +see, is _alive_ and divine in the true sense; its letters are the +vehicles of activities; its words, terrific formulae; and the true +pronunciation of them remains today a direct channel to divine knowledge. +In time you shall see; in time you shall know; in time you shall hear. +Mr. Spinrobin," and he thrust his great head forwards and dropped his +voice to a hushed whisper, "in time we shall all together make this +Experiment in sound which shall redeem us and make us as Gods!" + +"Thank you!" gasped the secretary, swept off his feet by this torrent of +uncommon and mystical language, and passing a moist hand through his +feathery hair. He was not entirely ignorant, of course, of the alleged +use of sound in the various systems of so-called magic that have +influenced the minds of imaginative men during the history of the world. +He had heard, more or less vaguely, perhaps, but still with +understanding, about "Words of Power"; but hitherto he had merely +regarded such things as picturesque superstitions, or half-truths that +lie midway between science and imagination. Here, however, was a man in +the twentieth century, the days of radium, flying machines, wireless +telegraphy, and other invitations towards materialism, who apparently had +practical belief in the effective use of sound and in its psychic and +divine possibilities, and who was devoting all of his not inconsiderable +powers of heart and mind to their actual demonstration. It was +astonishing. It was delightful. It was incredible! And, but for the +currents of a strange and formidable fear that this conception of Skale's +audacious Experiment set stirring in his soul, Spinrobin's enthusiasm +would have been possibly as great as his own. + +As it was he went up to the big clergyman and held out his hand, utterly +carried away by the strangeness of it all, caught up in a vague splendor +he did not quite understand, prepared to abandon himself utterly. + +"I gather something of what you mean," he said earnestly, "if not all; +and I hope most sincerely I may prove suitable for your purpose when the +time comes. As a boy, you know, curiously enough, I always believed in +the efficacy of names and the importance of naming true. I think," he +added somewhat diffidently, looking up straight into the luminous eyes +above him, "if you will allow me to say so, I would follow you anywhere, +Mr. Skale--anywhere you cared to lead." + +"'Upon him that overcometh,'" said the clergyman in that gentle voice he +sometimes used, soft as the voice of woman, "'will I write my new +name....'" + +He gazed down very searchingly into the other's eyes for a minute or two, +then shook the proffered hand without another word. And so they +separated and went to bed, for it was long past midnight. + + + + +Chapter III + + +I + +In his bedroom, though excitement banished sleep in spite of the lateness +of the hour, he was too exhausted to make any effective attempt to reduce +the confusion of his mind to order. For the first time in his life the +diary-page for the day remained blank. For a long time he sat before it +with his pencil--then sighed and put it away. A volume he might have +written, but not a page, much less a line or two. And though it was but +eight hours since he had made the acquaintance of the Rev. Philip Skale, +it seemed to him more like eight days. + +Moreover, all that he had heard and seen, fantastic and strained as he +felt it to be, possibly even the product of religious mania, was +nevertheless profoundly disquieting, for mixed up with it somewhere or +other was--truth. Mr. Skale _had_ made a discovery--a giant one; it was +not all merely talk and hypnotism, the glamour of words. His great +Experiment would prove to be real and terrible. He _had_ discovered +certain uses of sound, occult yet scientific, and if he, Spinrobin, +elected to stay on, he would be obliged to play his part in the +dénouement. And this thought from the very beginning appalled while it +fascinated him. It filled him with a kind of horrible amazement. For the +object the clergyman sought, though not yet disclosed, already cast its +monstrous shadow across his path. He somehow discerned that it would deal +directly with knowledge the saner judgment of a commonplace world had +always deemed undesirable, unlawful, unsafe, dangerous to the souls that +dared attempt it, failure involving a pitiless and terrible Nemesis. + +He lay in bed watching the play of the firelight upon the high ceiling, +and thinking in confused fashion of the huge clergyman with his +thundering voice, his great lambent eyes and his seductive gentleness; of +his singular speculations and his hints, half menacing, half splendid, of +things to come. Then he thought of the housekeeper with her deafness and +her withered arm, and that white peace about her face; and, lastly, of +Miriam, soft, pale beneath her dark skin, her gem-like eyes ever finding +his own, and of the intimate personal relations so swiftly established +between them.... + +It was, indeed, a singular household thus buried away in the heart of +these lonely mountains. The stately old mansion was just the right +setting for--for-- + +Unbidden into his mind a queer, new thought shot suddenly, interrupting +the flow of ideas. He never understood how or whence it came, but with +the picture of all the empty rooms in the corridor about him, he +received the sharp unwelcome impression that when Mr. Skale described the +house as empty it was really nothing of the sort. Utterly unannounced, +the uneasy conviction took possession of him that the building was +actually--populated. It was an extraordinary idea to have. There was +absolutely nothing in the way of evidence to support it. And with it +flashed across his memory echoes of that unusual catechism he had been +subjected to--in particular the questions whether he believed in +spirits,--"other life," as Skale termed it. Sinister suspicions flashed +through his imagination as he lay there listening to the ashes dropping +in the grate and watching the shadows cloak the room. Was it possible +that there were occupants of these rooms that the man had somehow evoked +from the interstellar spaces and crystallized by means of sound into form +and shape--_created?_ + +Something freezing swept into him from a region far beyond the world. He +shivered. These cold terrors that grip the soul suddenly without apparent +cause, whence do they come? Why, out of these rather extravagant and +baseless speculations, should have emerged this sense of throttling dread +that appalled him? And why, once again, should he have felt convinced +that the ultimate nature of the clergyman's great experiment was impious, +fraught with a kind of heavenly danger, "unpermissible?" + +Spinrobin, lying there shivering in his big bed, could not guess. He only +knew that by way of relief his mind instinctively sought out Miriam, and +so found peace. Curled up in a ball between the sheets his body presently +slept, while his mind, intensely active, traveled off into that vast +inner prairie of his childhood days and called her name aloud. And +presumably she came to him at once, for his sleep was undisturbed and his +dreams uncommonly sweet, and he woke thoroughly refreshed eight hours +later, to find Mrs. Mawle standing beside his bed with thin bread and +butter and a cup of steaming tea. + + +II + +For the rest, the new secretary fell quickly and easily into the routine +of this odd little household, for he had great powers of adaptability. +At first the promise of excitement faded. The mornings were spent in the +study of Hebrew, Mr. Skale taking great pains to instruct him in the +vibratory pronunciation (for so he termed it) of certain words, and +especially of the divine, or angelic, names. The correct utterance, +involving a kind of prolonged and sonorous vibration of the vowels, +appeared to be of supreme importance. He further taught him curious +correspondences between Sound and Number, and the attribution to these +again of certain colors. The vibrations of sound and light, as air and +ether, had intrinsic importance, it seemed, in the uttering of certain +names; all of which, however, Spinrobin learnt by rote, making neither +head nor tail of it. + +That there were definite results, though, he could not deny--psychic +results; for a name uttered correctly produced one effect, and uttered +wrongly produced another ... just as a wrong note in a chord afflicts the +hearer whereas the right one blesses.... + +The afternoons, wet or fine, they went for long walks together about the +desolate hills, Miriam sometimes accompanying them. Their talk and +laughter echoed all over the mountains, but there was no one to hear +them, the nearest village being several miles away and the railway +station--nothing but a railway station. The isolation was severe; there +were no callers but the bi-weekly provision carts; letters had to be +fetched and newspapers were neglected. + +Arrayed in fluffy tweeds, with baggy knickerbockers and heavily-nailed +boots, he trotted beside his giant companion over the moors, somewhat +like a child who expected its hand to be taken over difficult places. His +confidence had been completely won. The sense of shyness left him. He +felt that he already stood to the visionary clergyman in a relationship +that was more than secretarial. He still panted, but with enthusiasm +instead of with regret. In the background loomed always the dim sense of +the Discovery and Experiment approaching inevitably, just as in childhood +the idea of Heaven and Hell had stood waiting to catch him--real only +when he thought carefully about them. Skale was just the kind of man, he +felt, who would make a discovery, so simple that the rest of the world +had overlooked it, so tremendous that it struck at the roots of human +knowledge. He had the simple originality of genius, and a good deal of +its inspirational quality as well. + +Before ten days had passed he was following him about like a dog, hanging +upon his lightest word. New currents ran through him mentally and +spiritually as the fires of Mr. Skale's vivid personality quickened his +own, and the impetus of his inner life lifted him with its more violent +momentum. The world of an ordinary man is so circumscribed, so +conventionally molded, that he can scarcely conceive of things that may +dwell normally in the mind of an extraordinary man. Adumbrations of +these, however, may throw their shadow across his field of vision. +Spinrobin was ordinary in most ways, while Mr. Skale was un-ordinary in +nearly all; and thus, living together in this intimate solitude, the +secretary got peeps into his companion's region that gradually convinced +him. With cleaned nerves and vision he began to think in ways and terms +that were new to him. Skale, like some big figure in story or legend, +moved forward into his life and waved a wand. His own smaller personality +began to expand; thoughts entered unannounced that hitherto had not even +knocked at the door, and the frontiers of his mind first wavered, then +unfolded to admit them. + +The clergyman's world, whether he himself were mad or sane, was a real +world, alive, vibrating, shortly to produce practical results. Spinrobin +would have staked his very life upon it.... + +And, meanwhile, he made love openly--under any other conditions, +outrageously--to Miriam, whose figure of soft beauty moving silently +about the house helped to redeem it. She rendered him quiet little +services of her own accord that pleased him immensely, for occasionally +he detected her delicate perfume about his room, and he was sure it was +not Mrs. Mawle who put the fresh heather in the glass jars upon his +table, or arranged his papers with such neat precision on the desk. + +Her delicate, shining little face with its wreath of dark hair, went +with him everywhere, hauntingly, possessingly; and when he kissed her, +as he did now every morning and every evening under Mr. Skale's very +eyes, it was like plunging his lips into a bed of wild flowers that no +artificial process had ever touched. Something in him sang when she was +near. She had, too, what he used to call as a boy "night eyes"--changing +after dusk into such shadowy depths that to look _at_ them was to look +beyond and through them. The sight could never rest only upon their +surface. Through her eyes, then, stretched all the delight of that old +immense play-ground ... where names clothed, described, and summoned +living realities. + +His attitude towards her was odd yet comprehensible; for though his +desire was unquestionably great, it was not particularly active, probably +because he knew that he held her and that no aggressive effort was +necessary. Secure in the feeling that she belonged to him, and he to her, +he also found that he had little enough to say to her, never anything to +ask. She knew and understood it all beforehand; expression was uncalled +for. As well might the brimming kettle sing to the water "I contain you," +or the water reply "I fill you!" + +Only this was not the simile he used. In his own thoughts from the very +beginning he had used the analogy of sound--of the chord. As well might +one note feel called upon to cry to another in the same chord, "Hark! I'm +sounding with you!" as that Spinrobin should say to Miriam, "My heart +responds and sings to yours." + +After a period of separation, however, he became charged with things he +wanted to say to her, all of which vanished utterly the moment they came +together. Words instantly then became unnecessary, foolish. He heard that +faint internal singing, and his own resonant response; and they merely +stayed there side by side, completely happy, everything told without +speech. This sense of blissful union enwrapped his soul. In the language +of his boyhood he had found her name; he knew her; she was his. + +Yet sometimes they did talk; and their conversations, in any other +setting but this amazing one provided by the wizardry of Skale's +enthusiasm, must have seemed exquisitely ludicrous. In the room, often +with the clergyman a few feet away, reading by the fire, they would sit +in the window niche, gazing into one another's eyes, perhaps even holding +hands. Then, after a long interval of silence Mr. Skale would hear +Spinrobin's thin accents: + +"You brilliant little sound! I hear you everywhere within me, chanting a +song of life!" + +And Miriam's reply, thrilled and gentle: + +"I'm but your perfect echo! My whole life sings with yours!" + +Whereupon, kissing softly, they would separate, and Mr. Skale would cover +them mentally with his blessing. + +Sometimes, too, he would send for the housekeeper and, with the aid of +the violin, would lead the four voices, his own bass included, through +the changes of various chords, for the vibratory utterance of certain +names; and the beauty of these sounds, singing the "divine names," would +make the secretary swell to twice his normal value and importance (thus +he puts it), as the forces awakened by the music poured and surged into +the atmosphere about them. Whereupon the clergyman would explain with +burning words that many a symphony of Beethoven's, a sonata of +Schumann's, or a suite of Tschaikovsky's were the Names, peaceful, +romantic or melancholy, of great spiritual Potencies, heard partially +by these masters in their moments of inspirational ecstasy. The powers +of these Beings were just as characteristic, their existence just as +real, as the simpler names of the Hebrew angels, and their psychic +influence upon the soul that heard them uttered just as sure and +individual. + +"For the power of music, my dear Spinrobin, has never yet by science or +philosophy been adequately explained, and never can be until the occult +nature of sound, and its correlations with color, form, and number is +once again understood. 'Rhythm is the first law of the physical +creation,' says one, 'and music is a breaking into sound of the +fundamental rhythm of universal being.' 'Rhythm and harmony,' declares +Plato, 'find their way into the secret places of the soul.' 'It is the +manifestation,' whispers the deaf Beethoven, 'of the inner essential +nature of all that is,' or in the hint of Leibnitz, 'it is a calculation +which the soul makes unconsciously in secret.' It is 'love in search of a +name,' sang George Eliot, nearer in her intuition to the truth than all +the philosophers, since love is the dynamic of pure spirit. But I," he +continued after a pause for breath, and smiling amid the glow of his +great enthusiasm, "go beyond and behind them all into the very heart of +the secret; for you shall learn that to know the sounds of the Great +Names and to utter their music correctly shall merge yourself into the +heart of their deific natures and make you 'as the gods themselves...!'" + +And Spinrobin, as he listened, noticed that a slight trembling ran +across the fabric of his normal world, as though it were about to vanish +and give place to another--a new world of divine things made utterly +simple. For many things that Skale said in this easy natural way, he +felt, were in the nature of clues and passwords, whose effect he +carefully noted upon his secretary, being intended to urge him, with a +certain violence even, into the desired region. Skale was testing him +all the time. + + +III + +And it was about this time, more than half way through the trial month, +that the clergyman took Spinrobin, now become far more than merely +secretary, into his fuller confidence. In a series of singular +conversations, which the bewildered little fellow has reported to the +best of his ability, he explained to him something of the science of true +names. And to prove it he made two singular experiments: first he uttered +the true name of Mrs. Mawle, secondly of Spinrobin himself, with results +that shall presently be told. + +These things it was necessary for him to know and understand before they +made the great Experiment. Otherwise, if unprepared, he might witness +results that would involve the loss of self-control and the failure, +therefore, of the experiment--a disaster too formidable to contemplate. + +By way of leading up to this, however, he gave him some account first of +the original discovery. Spinrobin asked few questions, made few comments; +he took notes, however, of all he heard and at night wrote them up as +best he could in his diary. At times the clergyman rose and interrupted +the strange recital by moving about the room with his soft and giant +stride, talking even while his back was turned; and at times the +astonished secretary wrote so furiously that he broke his pencil with a +snap, and Mr. Skale had to wait while he sharpened it again. His inner +excitement was so great that he almost felt he emitted sparks. + +The clue, it appears, came to the clergyman by mere chance, though he +admits his belief that the habits of asceticism and meditation he had +practiced for years may have made him in some way receptive to the +vision, for as a vision, it seems, the thing first presented itself--a +vision made possible by a moment of very rapid hypnosis. + +An Anglican priest at the time, in charge of a small Norfolk parish, he +was a great believer in the value of ceremonial--in the use, that is, of +color, odor and sound to induce mental states of worship and +adoration--more especially, however, of sound as uttered by the voice, +the human voice being unique among instruments in that it combined the +characteristics of all other sounds. Intoning, therefore, was to him a +matter of psychic importance, and it was one summer evening, intoning, in +the chancel, that he noticed suddenly certain very curious results. The +faces of two individuals in the congregation underwent a charming and +singular change, a change which he would not describe more particularly +at the moment, since Spinrobin should presently witness it for himself. + +It all happened in a flash--in less than a second, and it is probable, +he holds, that his own voice induced an instant of swift and passing +hypnosis upon himself; for as he stood there at the lectern there came +upon him a moment of keen interior lucidity in which he realized beyond +doubt or question what had happened. The use of voice, bell, or gong, +has long been known as a means of inducing the hypnotic state, and +during this almost instantaneous trance of his there came a sudden +revelation of the magical possibilities of sound-vibration. By some +chance rhythm of his intoning voice he had hit upon the exact pitch, +quality and accent which constituted the "Note" of more than one member +of the congregation before him. Those particular individuals, without +being aware of the fact, had at once responded, automatically and +inevitably. For a second he had heard, he knew, their true names! He had +unwittingly "called" them. + +Spinrobin's heart leaped with excitement as he listened, for this idea of +"Naming True" carried him back to the haunted days of his childhood +clairvoyance when he had known Winky. + +"I don't _quite_ understand, Mr. Skale," he put in, desirous to hear a +more detailed explanation. + +"But presently you shall," was all the clergyman vouchsafed. + +The clue thus provided by chance he had followed up, but by methods hard +to describe apparently. A corner of the veil, momentarily lifted, had +betrayed the value that lies in the repetition of certain sounds--the +rhythmic reiteration of syllables--in a word, of chanting or incantation. +By diving down into his subconscious region, already prepared by long +spiritual training, he gradually succeeded in drawing out further details +piece by piece, and finally by infinite practice and prayer welding them +together into an intelligible system. The science of true-naming slowly, +with the efforts of years, revealed itself. His mind slipped past the +deceit of mere sensible appearances. Clair-audiently he heard the true +inner names of things and persons.... + +Mr. Skale rose from his chair. With thumbs in the armholes of his +waistcoat and fingers drumming loudly on his breast he stood over the +secretary, who continued making frantic notes. + +"That chance discovery, then, made during a moment's inner vision," he +continued with a grave excitement, "gave me the key to a whole world of +new knowledge, and since then I have made incredible developments. Listen +closely, Mr. Spinrobin, while I explain. And take in what you can." + +The secretary laid down his pencil and notebook. He sat forward in an +attitude of intense eagerness upon the edge of his chair. He was +trembling. This strange modern confirmation of his early Heaven of wonder +before the senses had thickened and concealed it, laid bare again his +earliest world of far-off pristine glory. + +"The ordinary name of a person, understand then, is merely a sound +attached to their physical appearance at birth by the parents--a +meaningless sound. It is not their true name. That, however, exists +behind it in the spiritual world, and is the accurate description of +the soul. It is the sound you express visibly before me. The Word is +the Life." + +Spinrobin surreptitiously picked up his pencil; but the clergyman spied +the movement. "Never mind the notes," he said; "listen closely to me." +Spinrobin obeyed meekly. + +"Your ordinary outer name, however," continued Mr. Skale, speaking with +profound conviction, "may be made a conductor to your true, inner one. +The connection between the two by a series of subtle interior links forms +gradually with the years. For even the ordinary name, if you reflect a +moment, becomes in time a sound of singular authority--inwoven with the +finest threads of your psychical being, so that in a sense you _become_ +it. To hear it suddenly called aloud in the night--in a room full of +people, in the street unexpectedly--is to know a shock, however small, of +increased vitality. It touches the imagination. It calls upon the soul +built up around it." + +He paused a moment. His voice boomed musically about the room, even after +he ceased speaking. Bewildered, wondering, delighted, Spinrobin drank in +every word. How well he knew it all. + +"Now," resumed the clergyman, lowering his tone unconsciously, "the first +part of my discovery lies in this: that I have learned to pronounce the +ordinary names of things and people in such a way as to lead me to their +true, inner ones--" + +"But," interrupted Spinrobin irrepressibly, "how in the name of--?" + +"Hush!" cried Skale quickly. "Never again call upon a mighty name--in +vain. It is dangerous. Concentrate your mind upon what I now tell you, +and you shall understand a part, at least, of my discovery. As I was +saying, I have learned how to find the true name by means of the false; +and understand, if you can, that to pronounce a true name correctly means +to participate in its very life, to vibrate with its essential nature, to +learn the ultimate secret of its inmost being. For our true names are the +sounds originally uttered by the 'Word' of God when He created us, or +'called' us into Being out of the void of infinite silence, and to repeat +them correctly means literally--to--speak--with--His--Voice. It is to +speak the truth." The clergyman dropped his tone to an awed whisper. +"Words are the veils of Being; to speak them truly is to lift a corner of +the veil." + +"What a glory! What a thing!" exclaimed the other under his breath, +trying to keep his mind steady, but losing control of language in the +attempt. The great sentences seemed to change the little room into a +temple where sacred things were about to reveal themselves. Spinrobin now +understood in a measure why Mr. Skale's utterance of his own name and +that of Miriam had sounded grand. Behind each he had touched the true +name and made it echo. + +The clergyman's voice brought his thoughts back from distances in that +inner prairie of his youth where they had lost themselves. + +"For all of us," he was repeating with rapt expression in his shining +eyes, "are Sounds in the mighty music the universe sings to God, whose +Voice it was that first produced us, and of whose awful resonance we are +echoes therefore in harmony or disharmony." A look of power passed into +his great visage. Spinrobin's imagination, in spite of the efforts that +he made, fluttered with broken wings behind the swift words. A flash of +the former terror stirred in the depths of him. The man was at the heels +of knowledge it is not safe for humanity to seek.... + +"Yes," he continued, directing his gaze again upon the other, "that is a +part of my discovery, though only a part, mind. By repeating your outer +name in a certain way until it disappears in the mind, I can arrive at +the real name within. And to utter it is to call upon the secret soul--to +summon it from its lair. 'I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by +name.' You remember the texts? '_I know thee by name_,' said Jehovah to +the great Hebrew magician, '_and thou art mine_.' By certain rhythms and +vibratory modulations of the voice it is possible to produce harmonics of +sound which awaken the inner name into life--and then to spell it out. +Note well, to _spell_ it,--spell--incantation--the magical use of +sound--the meaning of the Word of Power, used with such terrific effect +in the old forgotten Hebrew magic. Utter correctly the names of their +Forces, or Angels, I am teaching you daily now," he went on reverently, +with glowing eyes and intense conviction; "pronounce them with full +vibratory power that awakens all their harmonics, and you awaken also +their counterpart in yourself; you summon their strength or +characteristic quality to your aid; you introduce their powers actively +into your own psychical being. Had Jacob succeeded in discovering the +'Name' of that 'Angel' with whom he wrestled, he would have become one +with its superior power and have thus conquered it. Only, he asked +instead of commanded, and he found it not..." + +"Magnificent! Splendid!" cried Spinrobin, starting from his chair, +seizing with his imagination potently stirred, this possibility of +developing character and rousing the forces of the soul. + +"We shall yet call upon the Names, and see," replied Skale, placing a +great hand upon his companion's shoulder, "not aloud necessarily, but by +an inner effort of intense will which sets in vibration the finer +harmonics heard only by the poet and magician, those harmonics and +overtones which embody the psychical element in music. For the methods of +poet and magician, I tell you, my dear Spinrobin, are identical, and all +the faiths of the world are at the heels of that thought. Provided you +have faith you can--move mountains! You can call upon the very gods!" + +"A most wonderful idea, Mr. Skale," faltered the other breathlessly, +"quite wonderful!" The huge sentences deafened him a little with their +mental thunder. + +"And utterly simple," was the reply, "for all truth is simple." + +He paced the floor like a great caged animal. He went down and leaned +against the dark bookcase, with his legs wide apart, and hands in his +coat pockets. "To name truly, you see, is to evoke, to create!" he +roared from the end of the room. "To utter as it should be uttered any +one of the Ten Words, or Creative Powers of the Deity in the old Hebrew +system, is to become master of the 'world' to which it corresponds. For +these names are still in living contact with the realities behind. It +means to vibrate with the powers that called the universe into being +and--into form." + +A sort of shadowy majesty draped his huge figure, Spinrobin thought, as +he stood in semi-darkness at the end of the room and thundered forth +these extraordinary sentences with a conviction that, for the moment at +least, swept away all doubt in the mind of his listener. Dreadful ideas, +huge-footed and threatening, rushed to and fro in the secretary's mind. +He was torn away from all known anchorage, staggered, dizzy and dismayed; +yet at the same time, owing to his adventure-loving temperament, a prey +to some secret and delightful exaltation of the spirit. He was out of his +depth in great waters.... + +Then, quite suddenly, Mr. Skale came swiftly over to his side and +whispered in accents that were soothing in comparison: + +"And think for a moment how beautiful, the huge Words by which God called +into being the worlds, and sent the perfect, rounded bodies of the +spheres spinning and singing, blazing their eternal trails of glory +through the void! How sweet the whisper that crystallized in flowers! How +tender the note that fashioned the eyes and face, say, of Miriam...." + +At the name of Miriam he felt caught up and glorified, in some delightful +and inexplicable way that brought with it--peace. The power of all these +strange and glowing thoughts poured their full tide into his own rather +arid and thirsty world, frightening him with their terrific force. But +the mere utterance of that delightful name--in the way Skale uttered +it--brought confidence and peace. + +"... Could we but hear them!" Skale continued, half to himself, half to +his probationer; "for the sad thing is that today the world has ears yet +cannot hear. As light is distorted by passing through a gross atmosphere, +so sound reaches us but indistinctly now, and few true names can bring +their wondrous messages of power correctly. Men, coarsening with the +materialism of the ages, have grown thick and gross with the luxury of +inventions and the diseases of modern life that develop intellect at the +expense of soul. They have lost the old inner hearing of divine sound, +and but one here and there can still catch the faint, far-off and +ineffable music." + +He lifted his eyes, and his voice became low and even gentle as the +glowing words fell from his heart of longing. + +"None hear now the morning stars when they sing together to the sun; none +know the chanting of the spheres! The ears of the world are stopped with +lust, and the old divine science of true-naming seems lost forever amid +the crash of engines and the noisy thunder of machinery!... Only among +flowers and certain gems are the accurate old true names still to be +found!... But we are on the track, my dear Spinrobin, we are on the +ancient trail to Power." + +The clergyman closed his eyes and clasped his hands, lifting his face +upwards with a rapt expression while he murmured under his breath the +description of the Rider on the White Horse from the Book of the +Revelations, as though it held some inner meaning that his heart knew yet +dared not divulge: "And he had a Name written, that no man knew but he +himself. And he was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood: and his Name is +called The Word of God ... and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a +name written,--'King of Kings and Lord of Lords....'" + +And for an instant Spinrobin, listening to the rolling sound but not to +the actual words, fancied that a faintly colored atmosphere of deep +scarlet accompanied the vibrations of his resonant whisper and produced +in the depths of his mind this momentary effect of colored audition. + +It was all very strange and puzzling. He tried, however, to keep an open +mind and struggle as best he might with these big swells that rolled +into his little pool of life and threatened to merge it in a vaster tide +than he had yet dreamed of. Knowing how limited is the world which the +senses report, he saw nothing too inconceivable in the idea that +certain persons might possess a peculiar inner structure of the spirit +by which supersensuous things can be perceived. And what more likely +than that a man of Mr. Skale's unusual caliber should belong to them? +Indeed, that the clergyman possessed certain practical powers of an +extraordinary description he was as certain as that the house was not +empty as he had at first supposed. Of neither had he proof as yet; but +proof was not long in forthcoming. + + + + +Chapter IV + + +I + +"Then if there is so much sound about in all objects and forms--if the +whole universe, in fact, is sounding," asked Spinrobin with a naïve +impertinence not intended, but due to the reaction of his simple mind +from all this vague splendor, "why don't we hear it more?" + +Mr. Skale came upon him like a boomerang from the end of the room. He was +smiling. He approved the question. + +"With us the question of hearing is merely the question of wavelengths in +the air," he replied; "the lowest audible sound having a wavelength of +sixteen feet, the highest less than an inch. Some people can't hear the +squeak of a bat, others the rumble of an earthquake. I merely affirm that +in every form sleeps the creative sound that is its life and being. The +ear is a miserable organ at best, and the majority are far too gross to +know clair-audience. What about sounds, for instance, that have a +wavelength of a hundred, a thousand miles on the one hand, or a millionth +part of an inch on the other?" + +"A thousand miles! A millionth of an inch?" gasped the other, gazing at +his interlocutor as though he was some great archangel of sound. + +"Sound for most of us lies between, say, thirty and many thousand +vibrations per second--the cry of the earthquake and the cricket; it is +our limitation that renders the voice of the dewdrop and the voice of the +planet alike inaudible. We even mistake a measure of noise--like a +continuous millwheel or a river, say--for silence, when in reality there +is no such thing as perfect silence. Other life is all the time singing +and thundering about us," he added, holding up a giant finger as though +to listen. "To the imperfection of our ears you may ascribe the fact that +we do not hear the morning stars shouting together." + +"Thank you, yes, I quite see now," said the secretary. "To name truly is +to hear truly." The clergyman's words seemed to hold a lamp to a vast +interior map in his mind that was growing light. A new dawn was breaking +over the great mental prairie where he wandered as a child. "To find the +true name of anything," he added, "you mean, is to hear its sound, its +individual note as it were?" Incredible perspectives swam into his ken, +hitherto undreamed of. + +"Not 'as it were,'" boomed the other, "You _do_ hear it. After which the +next step is to utter it, and so absorb its force into your own being by +synchronous vibration--union mystical and actual. Only, you must be sure +you utter it correctly. To pronounce incorrectly is to call it +incompletely into life and form--to distort and injure it, and yourself +with it. To make it untrue--a lie." + +They were standing in the dusk by the library window, watching the veil +of night that slowly covered the hills. The flying horizons of the moors +had slipped away into the darkness. + +The stars were whispering together their thoughts of flame and speed. At +the back of the room sat Miriam among the shadows, like some melody +hovering in a musician's mind till he should call her forth. It was close +upon the tea hour. Behind them Mrs. Mawle was busying herself with lamps +and fire. Mr. Skale, turning at the sound of the housekeeper, motioned to +the secretary to approach, then stooped down and spoke low in his ear: + +"With many names I had great difficulty," he whispered. "With hers, for +instance," indicating the housekeeper behind them. "It took me five +years' continuous research to establish her general voice-outline, and +even then I at first only derived a portion of her name. And in uttering +it I made such errors of omission and pronunciation that her physical +form suffered, and she emerged from the ordeal in disorder. You have, of +course, noticed her disabilities.... But, later, though only in +stammering fashion, I called upon her all complete, and she has since +known a serene blessedness and a sense of her great value in the music of +life that she never knew before." His face lit up as he spoke of it. "For +in that moment she found herself. She heard her true name, God's creative +sound, thunder through her being." + +Spinrobin, feeling the clergyman's forces pouring through him like a tide +at such close proximity, bowed his head. His lips were too dry to frame +words. He was thinking of the possible effects upon his own soul and body +when his name too should be "uttered." He remembered the withered arm and +the deafness. He thought, too, of that slender, ghostly figure that +haunted the house with its soft movements and tender singing. Lastly, he +remembered his strange conviction that somewhere in the great building, +possibly in his own corridor, there were other occupants, other life, +Beings of unearthly scale waiting the given moment to appear, summoned by +utterance. + +"And you will understand now why it is I want a man of high courage to +help me," Skale resumed in a louder tone, standing sharply upright; "a +man careless of physical existence, and with a faith wholly beyond the +things of this world!" + +"I do indeed," he managed to reply aloud, while in his thoughts he was +saying, "I will, I _must_ see it through. I won't give in!" With all his +might he resisted the invading tide of terror. Even if sad results came +later, it was something to have been sacrificed in so big a conception. + +In his excitement he slipped from the edge of the windowsill, where he +was perched, and Mr. Skale, standing close in front of him, caught his +two wrists and set him upon his feet. A shock, like a rush of +electricity, ran through him. He took his courage boldly in both hands +and asked the question ever burning at the back of his mind. + +"Then, this great Experiment you--we have in view," he stammered, "is to +do with the correct uttering of the names of some of the great Forces, or +Angels, and--and the assimilating of their powers into ourselves--?" + +Skale rose up gigantically beside him. "No, sir," he cried, "it is +greater--infinitely greater than that. Names of mere Angels I can call +alone without the help of any one; but for the name I wish to utter a +whole chord is necessary even to compass the utterance of the opening +syllable; as I have told you already, a chord in which you share the +incalculable privilege of being the tenor note. But for the completed +syllables--the full name--!" He closed his eyes and shrugged his massive +shoulders--"I may need the massed orchestras of half the world, the +chorused voices of the entire nation--or in their place a still small +voice of utter purity crying in the wilderness! In time you shall know +fully--know, see and hear. For the present, hold your soul with what +patience and courage you may." + +The words thundered about the room, so that Miriam, too, heard them. +Spinrobin trembled inwardly, as though a cold air passed him. The +suggestion of immense possibilities, vague yet terrible, overwhelmed him +again suddenly. Had not the girl at that moment moved up beside him and +put her exquisite pale face over his shoulder, with her hand upon his +arm, it is probable he would then and there have informed Mr. Skale that +he withdrew from the whole affair. + +"Whatever happens," murmured Miriam, gazing into his eyes, "we go on +singing and sounding together, you and I." Then, as Spinrobin bent down +and kissed her hair, Mr. Skale put an arm round each of them and drew +them over to the tea table. + +"Come, Mr. Spinrobin," he said, with his winning smile, "you must not be +alarmed, you know. You must not desert me. You are necessary to us all, +and when my Experiment is complete we shall all be as gods together. Do +not falter. There is nothing in life, remember, but to lose oneself; and +I have found a better way of doing so than any one else--by merging +ourselves into the Voice of--" + +"Mr. Skale's tea has been standing more than ten minutes," interrupted +the old housekeeper, coming up behind them; "if Mr. Spinrobin will +please to let him come--" as though it was Spinrobin's fault that there +had been delay. + +Mr. Skale laughed good-humouredly, as the two men, suddenly in the region +of teacups and buttered toast, looked one another in the face with a +certain confusion. Miriam, sipping her tea, laughed too, curiously. +Spinrobin felt restored to some measure of safety and sanity again. Only +the strange emotion of a few moments before still moved there unseen +among them. + +"Listen, and you shall presently hear her name," the clergyman +whispered, glancing up at the other over his teacup, but Spinrobin was +crunching his toast too noisily to notice the meaning of the words fully. + + +II + +The Stage Manager who stands behind all the scenes of life, both great +and small, had prepared the scene well for what was to follow. The +sentences about the world of inaudible sound had dropped the right kind +of suggestion into the secretary's heart. His mind still whirred with a +litter of half-digested sentences and ideas, however, and he was vividly +haunted by the actuality of truth behind them all. His whole inner being +at that moment cried "Hark!" through a hush of expectant wonder. + +There they sat at tea, this singular group of human beings: Mr. Skale, +bigger than ever in his loose housesuit of black, swallowing his liquid +with noisy gulps; Spinrobin, nibbling slippery morsels of hot toast, on +the edge of his chair; Miriam, quiet and mysterious, in her corner; and +Mrs. Mawle, sedate, respectful in cap and apron, presiding over the +teapot, the whole scene cozily lit by lamp and fire--when this remarkable +new thing happened. Spinrobin declares always that it came upon him like +a drowning wave, frightening him not with any idea of injury to himself, +but with a dreadful sense of being lost and shelterless among the +immensities of a transcendent new world. Something passed into the room +that made his soul shake and flutter at the center. + +His attention was first roused by a sound that he took, perhaps, to be +the wind coming down from the hills in those draughts and gusts he +sometimes heard, only to his imagination now it was a peopled wind +crying round the walls, behind whose voice he detected the great fluid +form of it--running and colored. But, with the noise, a terror that was +no ordinary terror invaded the recesses of his soul. It was the fear of +the Unknown, dreadfully multiplied. + +He glanced up quickly from his teacup, and chancing to meet Miriam's eye, +he saw that she was smiling as she watched him. This sound, then, had +some special significance. At the same instant he perceived that it was +not outside but in the room, close beside him, that Mr. Skale, in fact, +was talking to the deaf housekeeper in a low and carefully modulated +tone--a tone she could not possibly have heard, however. Then he +discovered that the clergyman was not speaking actually, but repeating +her name. He was intoning it. It grew into a kind of singing chant, an +incantation. + +"Sarah Mawle ... Sarah Mawle ... Sarah Mawle ..." ran through the +room like water. And, in Skale's mouth, it sounded as his own name +had sounded--different. It became in some significant way--thus +Spinrobin expresses it always--stately, important, nay, even august. +It became real. The syllables led his ear away from their normal +signification--away from the outer toward the inner. His ordinary mental +picture of the mere letters SARAHMAWLE disappeared and became merged in +something else--into something alive that pulsed and moved with +vibrations of its own. For, with the outer sound there grew up another +interior one, that finally became separate and distinct. + +Now Spinrobin was well aware that the continued repetition of one's own +name can induce self-hypnotism; and he also knew that the reiteration of +the name of an object ends by making that object disappear from the mind. +"Mustard," repeated indefinitely, comes to have no meaning at all. The +mind drops behind the mere symbol of the sound into something that is +unintelligible, if not meaningless. But here it was altogether another +matter, and from the torrent of words and similes he uses to describe it, +this--a curious mixture of vividness and confusion--is apparently what he +witnessed: + +For, as the clergyman's resonant voice continued quietly to utter the +name, something passed gradually into the appearance of the motherly old +housekeeper that certainly was not there before, not visible, at least, +to the secretary's eyes. Behind the fleshly covering of the body, within +the very skin and bones it seemed, there flowed with steady splendor an +effect of charging new vitality that had an air of radiating from her +face and figure with the glow and rush of increased life. A suggestion of +grandeur, genuine and convincing, began to express itself through the +humble domestic exterior of her everyday self; at first, as though some +greater personage towered shadowy behind her, but presently with a +growing definiteness that showed it to be herself and nothing separate. +The two, if two they were, merged. + +Her mien, he saw, first softened astonishingly, then grew firm with an +aspect of dignity that was unbelievably beautiful. An air of peace and +joy her face had always possessed, but this was something beyond either. +It was something imposing, majestic. So perilously adjusted is the +ludicrous to the sublime, that while the secretary wondered dumbly +whether the word "housekeeper" might also in Skale's new world connote +"angel," he could have laughed aloud, had not the nobility of the +spectacle hinted at the same time that he should have wept. For the tears +of a positive worship started to his eyes at the sight. + +"Sarahmawle ... Sarahmawle...." The name continued to pour itself about +him in a steady ripple, neither rising nor falling, and certainly not +audible to those deaf old ears that flanked the vigorous and unwrinkled +face. "Youth" is not the word to describe this appearance of ardent +intensity that flamed out of the form and features of the housekeeper, +for it was something utterly apart from either youth or age. Nor was it +any mere idealization of her worn and crumpled self. It was independent +of physical conditions, as it was independent of the limitations of time +and space; superb as sunshine, simple as the glory that had sometimes +touched his soul of boyhood in sleep--the white fires of an utter +transfiguration. + +It was, in a word, as if the name Skale uttered had summoned to the +front, through all disguising barriers of flesh, her true and naked +spirit, that which neither ages nor dies, that which the eyes, when they +rest upon a human countenance, can never see--the Soul itself! + +For the first time in his life Spinrobin, abashed and trembling, gazed +upon something in human guise that was genuinely sublime--perfect with a +stainless purity. The mere sight produced in him an exaltation of the +spirit such as he had never before experienced ... swallowing up his +first terror. In his heart of hearts, he declares, he prayed; for this +was the natural expression for an emotion of the volume and intensity +that surged within him.... + +How long he sat there gazing seems uncertain; perhaps minutes, perhaps +seconds only. The sense of time's passage was temporarily annihilated. It +might well have been a thousand years, for the sight somehow swept him +into eternity.... In that tearoom of Skale's lonely house among the +mountains, the warmth of an earthly fire upon his back, the light of an +earthly oil-lamp in his eyes, holding buttered toast in exceedingly +earthly fingers, he sat face to face with something that yet was not of +this earth, something majestic, spiritual and eternal ... visible +evidence of transfiguration and of "earth growing heaven...." + + * * * * * + +It was, of course, stupid and clumsy of Spinrobin to drop his teacup and +let it smash noisily against the leg of the table; yet it was natural +enough, for in his ecstasy and amazement he apparently lost control of +certain muscles in his trembling fingers.... Though the change came +gradually it seemed very quick. The volume of the clergyman's voice grew +less, and as the tide of sound ebbed the countenance of the housekeeper +also slowly altered. The flames that a moment before had burned so +whitely there flickered faintly and were gone; the glory faded; the +splendor withdrew. She even seemed to dwindle in size.... She resumed her +normal appearance. Skale's voice ceased. + +The incident apparently had occupied but a few moments, for Mrs. Mawle, +he realized, was gathering the plates together and fitting them into the +spaces of the crowded tea-tray with difficulty--an operation, he +remembered, she had just begun when the clergyman first began to call +upon her name. + +She, clearly, had been conscious of nothing unusual. A moment later, +with her customary combination of curtsey and bow, she was gone from the +room, and Spinrobin, acting upon a strange impulse, found himself +standing upright by the table, looking wildly about him, passing his +hand through his scattered hair, and trying in vain to utter words that +should relieve his overcharged soul of the burden of glory and mystery +that oppressed it. + +A pain, profoundly searching, pierced his heart. He thought of the +splendors he had just witnessed, and of the joy and peace upon those +features even when the greater wonder withdrew. He thought of the power +in the countenance of Skale, and of the shining loveliness in the face of +Miriam. Then, with a blast of bitterest disappointment, he realized the +insignificance of his own self--the earthiness of his own personality, +the dead, dull ordinariness of his own appearance. Why, oh, why, could +not all faces let the soul shine through? Why could not all identify +themselves with their eternal part, and thus learn happiness and joy? A +sense of the futile agony of life led him with an impassioned eagerness +again to the thought of Skale's tremendous visions, and of the great +Experiment that beckoned beyond. Only, once more the terror of its +possible meaning dropped upon him, and the little black serpents of fear +shot warningly across this brighter background of his hopes. + +Then he was aware that Miriam had crossed the room and stood beside him, +for her delicate and natural perfume announced her even before he turned +and saw. Her soft eyes shining conveyed an irresistible appeal, and with +her came the sense of peace she always brought. She was the one thing at +that moment that could comfort and he opened his arms to her and let her +come nestling in against him, both hands finding their way up under the +lapels of his coat, all the exquisite confidence of the innocent child in +her look. Her hair came over his lips and face like flowers, but he did +not kiss her, nor could he find any words to say. To hold her there was +enough, for the touch of her healed and blessed him. + +"So now you have seen her as she really is," he heard her voice against +his shoulder; "you have heard her true name, and seen a little of its +form and color!" + +"I never guessed that in this world--" he stammered; then, instead of +completing the sentence, held her more tightly to him and let his face +sink deeper into the garden of her hair. + +"Oh yes," she answered, and then peered up with unflinching look into his +eyes, "for that is just how I see you too--bright, splendid and eternal." + +"Miriam!" It was as unexpected as a ghost and as incredible. "Me ...?" + +"Of course! You see I know your true name. I see you as you are within!" + +Something came to steady his swimming brain, but it was only after a +distinct effort that he realized it was the voice of Mr. Skale +addressing him. Then, gradually, as he listened, gently releasing the +girl in order to turn towards him, he understood that what he had +witnessed had been in the nature of a "test"--one of those tests he had +been warned would come--and that his attitude to it was regarded by the +clergyman with approval. + +"It was a test more subtle than you know, perhaps, Mr. Spinrobin," he was +saying, "and the feelings it has roused in you are an adequate proof that +you have come well through it. As I knew you would, as I knew you would," +he added, with evident satisfaction. "They do infinite credit both to +yourself and to our judgment in--er--accepting you." + +A wave of singular emotion seemed to pass across the room from one to the +other that, catching the breathless secretary in its tide, filled him +with a high pride that he had been weighed and found worthy, then left +him cold with a sudden reaction as he realized after some delay the +import of the words Mr. Skale was next saying to him. + + + + +Chapter V + + +"And now you shall hear your own name called," boomed the clergyman with +enthusiasm, "and realize the beauty and importance of your own note in +the music of life." + +And while Spinrobin trembled from head to toe Mr. Skale bore down upon +him and laid a hand upon his shoulder. He looked up into the clergyman's +luminous eyes. His glance next wandered down the ridge of that masterful +nose and lost itself among the flowing strands of the tangled beard. At +that moment it would hardly have surprised him to see the big visage +disappear, and to hear the Sound, of which it was the visible form, slip +into his ears with a roar. + +But side by side with the vague terror of the unknown he was conscious +also of a smaller and more personal pang. For a man may envy other forms, +yet keenly resent the possible loss or alteration of his own. And he +remembered the withered arm and the deafness. + +"But," he faltered, yet ashamed of his want of courage, "I don't want to +lose my present shape, or--come back--without--" + +"Have no fear," exclaimed the other with decision. "Miriam and myself +have not been experimenting in vain these three weeks. We have found your +name. We know it accurately. For we are all one chord, and as I promised +you, there is no risk." He stopped, lowering his voice; and, taking the +secretary by the arm with a fatherly and possessive gesture, "Spinrobin," +he whispered solemnly, "you shall learn the value and splendor of your +Self in the melody of the Universe--that burst of divine music! You shall +understand how closely linked you are to myself and Mrs. Mawle, but, +closest of all, to Miriam. For Miriam herself shall call your name, and +you shall hear!" + +So little Miriam was to prove his executioner, or his redeemer. That was +somehow another matter. The awe with which these experiments of Mr. +Skale's inspired him ebbed considerably as he turned and saw the +appealing, wistful expression of his other examiner. Brave as a lion he +felt, yet timid as a hare; there was no idea of real resistance in him +any longer. + +"I'm ready, then," he said faintly, and the girl came up softly to his +side and sought his face with a frank innocence of gaze that made no +attempt to hide her eagerness and joy. She accepted the duty with +delight, proudly conscious of its importance. + +"I know thee by name and thou art mine," she murmured, taking his hand. + +"It makes me happy, yet afraid," he replied in her ear, returning the +caress; and at that moment the clergyman who had gone to fetch his +violin, returned into the room with a suddenness that made them both +start--for the first time. Very slightly, with the first sign of that +modesty which comes with knowledge he had yet noticed in her, or felt +conscious of in himself, she withdrew, a wonderful flush tinging her pale +skin, then passing instantly away. + +"To make you feel absolutely safe from possible disaster," Mr. Skale was +saying with a smile, "you shall have the assistance of the violin. The +pitch and rhythm shall be thus assured. There is nothing to fear." + +And Miriam, equally smiling with confidence, led her friend, perplexed +and entangled as he was by the whole dream-like and confusing puzzle--led +him to the armchair she had just vacated, and then seated herself at his +feet upon a high footstool and stared into his eyes with a sweet and +irresistible directness of gaze that at once increased both his sense of +bewilderment and his confidence. + +"First, you must speak my name," she said gently, yet with a note of +authority, "so that I may get the note of your voice into myself. Once or +twice will do." + +He obeyed. "Miriam ... Miriam ... Miriam," he said, and watched the tiny +reflection of his own face in her eyes, her "night-eyes." The same moment +he began to lose himself. The girl's lips were moving. She had picked up +his voice and merged her own with it, so that when he ceased speaking her +tones took up the note continuously. There was no break. She carried on +the sound that he had started. + +And at the same moment, out of the corner of his eye, he perceived that +the violin had left its case and was under the clergyman's beard. The bow +undulated like a silver snake, drawing forth long, low notes that flowed +about the room and set the air into rhythmical vibrations. These +vibrations, too, carried on the same sound. Spinrobin gave a little +uncontrollable jump; he felt as if he had uttered his own death-warrant +and that this instrument proclaimed the sentence. Then the feeling of +dread lessened as he heard Mr. Skale's voice mingling with the violin, +combining exquisitely with the double-stopping he was playing on the two +lower strings; for the music, as the saying is, "went through him" with +thrills of power that plunged into unknown depths of his soul and lifted +him with a delightful sense of inner expansion to a state where fear was +merged in joy. + +For some minutes the voice of Miriam, murmuring so close before him that +he could feel her very breath, was caught in the greater volume of the +violin and bass. Then, suddenly, both Skale and violin ceased together, +and he heard her voice emerge alone. With a little rush like that of a +singing flame, it dropped down on to the syllables of his name--his ugly +and ridiculous outer and ordinary name: + +"ROBERTSPINROBIN ... ROBERTSPINROBIN ..." he heard; and the sound flowed +and poured about his ears like the murmur of a stream through summer +fields. And, almost immediately, with it there came over him a sense of +profound peace and security. Very soon, too, he lost the sound +itself--did not hear it, as sound, for it grew too vast and enveloping. +The sight of Miriam's face also he lost. He grew too close to her to see +her, as object. Both hearing and sight merged into something more +intimate than either. He and the girl were together--one consciousness, +yet two aspects of that one consciousness. + +They were two notes singing together in the same chord, and he had lost +his little personality, only to find it again, increased and redeemed, in +an existence that was larger. + +It seemed to Spinrobin--for there is only his limited phraseology to draw +from--that the incantation of her singing tones inserted itself between +the particles of his flesh and separated them, ran with his blood, +covered his skin with velvet, flowed and purred in the very texture of +his mind and thoughts. Something in him swam, melted, fused. His inner +kingdom became most gloriously extended.... + +His soul loosened, then began to soar, while something at the heart of +him that had hitherto been congealed now turned fluid and alive. He was +light as air, swift as fire. His thoughts, too, underwent a change: rose +and fell with the larger rhythm of new life as the sound played upon +them, somewhat as wind may rouse the leaves of a tree, or call upon the +surface of a deep sea to follow it in waves. Terror was nowhere in his +sensations; but wonder, beauty and delight ran calling to one another +from one wave to the next, as this tide of sound moved potently in the +depths of his awakening higher consciousness. The little reactions of +ordinary life spun away from him into nothingness as he listened to a +volume of sound that was oceanic in power and of an infinite splendor: +the creative sound by which God first called him into form and +being--the true inner name of his soul. + +...Yet he no longer consciously listened... no longer, perhaps, +consciously heard. The name of the soul can sound only in the soul, where +no speech is, nor any need for such stammering symbols. Spinrobin for the +first time knew his true name, and that was enough. + +It is impossible to translate into precise language this torrent of +exquisite sensation that the girl's voice awakened. In the secret +chambers of his imagination Spinrobin found the _thoughts_, perhaps, that +clothed it with intelligible description for himself, but in speaking of +it to others he becomes simply semi-hysterical, and talks a kind of +hearty nonsense. For the truth probably is that only poetry or music can +convey any portion of a mystical illumination, otherwise hopelessly +incommunicable. The outer name had acted as a conductor to the inner name +beyond. It filled the room, and filled some far vaster space that opened +out above the room, about the house, above the earth, yet at the same +time was deep, deep down within his own self. He passed beyond the +confines of the world into those sweet, haunted gardens where Cherubim +and Seraphim--vast Forces--continually do sing. It floated him off his +feet as a rising tide overtakes the little shore-pools and floats them +into its own greatness, and on the tranquil bosom of these giant swells +he rose into a state that was too calm to be ecstasy, yet too glorious to +be mere exaltation. + +And as his own little note of personal aspiration soared with this vaster +music to which it belonged, he felt mounting out of himself into a +condition where at last he was alive, complete and splendidly important. +His sense of insignificance fled. His ordinary petty and unvalued self +dropped away flake by flake, and he realized something of the essential +majesty of his own real Being as part of an eternal and wonderful Whole. +The little painful throb of his own limited personality slipped into the +giant pulse-beat of a universal vibration. + +In his normal daily life, of course, he lost sight of this Whole, blinded +by the details seen without perspective, mistaking his little personality +for all there was of him; but now, as he rose, whirling, soaring, singing +in the body of this stupendous music, he understood with a rush of +indescribable glory that he was part and parcel of this great chord--this +particular chord in which Skale, Mrs. Mawle and Miriam also sang their +harmonious existences--that this chord, again, was part of a vaster music +still, and that all, in the last resort, was a single note in the divine +Utterance of God. + +That is, the little secretary, for the first time in his existence, saw +life as a whole, and interpreted the vision so wondrous sweet and simple, +with the analogies of sound communicated to his subliminal mind by the +mighty Skale. Whatever the cause, however, the fine thing was that he +saw, heard, knew. He was of value in the scheme. In future he could pipe +his little lay without despair. + +Moreover, with a merciless clarity of vision, he perceived an even +deeper side of truth, and understood that the temporary discords were +necessary, just as evil, so-called, is necessary for the greater final +perfection of the Whole. For it came to him with the clear simplicity of +a child's vision that the process of attuning his being to the right note +must inevitably involve suffering and pain: the awful stretching of the +string, the strain of the lifting vibrations, the stress at first of +sounding in harmony with all the others, and the apparent loss of one's +own little note in order to do so... + +This point he reached, it seems, and grasped. Afterwards, however, he +entered a state where he heard things no man can utter because no +language can touch transcendental things without confining or destroying +them. In attempting a version of them he merely becomes unintelligible, +as has been said. Yet the mere memory of it brings tears to his blue eyes +when he tries to speak of it, and Miriam, who became, of course, his +chief confidant, invariably took it upon herself to stop his futile +efforts with a kiss. + + * * * * * + +So at length the tide of sound began to ebb, the volume lessened and grew +distant, and he found himself, regretfully, abruptly, sinking back into +what by comparison was mere noise. First, he became conscious that he +listened--heard--saw; then, that Miriam's voice still uttered his name +softly, but his ordinary, outer name, Robertspinrobin; that he noticed +her big grey eyes gazing into his own, and her lips moving to frame the +syllables, and, finally, that he was sitting in the armchair, trembling. +Joy, peace, wonder still coursed through him like flames, but dying +flames. Mr. Skale's voice next reached him from the end of the room. He +saw the fireplace, his own bright and pointed pumps, the tea table where +they had drunk tea, and then, as the clergyman strode towards him over +the carpet, he looked up, faint with the farewell of the awful +excitement, into his face. The great passion of the experience still +glowed and shone in him like a furnace. + +And there, in that masterful bearded visage, he surprised an expression +so tender, so winning, so comprehending, that Spinrobin rose to his feet, +and taking Miriam by the hand, went to meet him. There the three of them +stood upon the mat before the fire. He felt overwhelmingly drawn to the +personality of the man who had revealed to him such splendid things, and +in his mind stirred a keen and poignant regret that such knowledge could +not be permanent and universal, instead of merely a heavenly dream in the +mind of each separate percipient. Gratitude and love, unknown to him +before, rose in his soul. Spinrobin, his heart bursting as with flames, +had cried aloud, "You have called me by my name and I am free!... You +have named me truly and I am redeemed!..." And all manner of speech, +semi-inspirational, was about to follow, when Mr. Skale suddenly moved to +one side and raised his arm. He pointed to the mirror. + +Spinrobin was just tall enough to see his own face in the glass, but +the glimpse he caught made him stand instantly on tiptoe to see more. +For his round little countenance, flushed as it was beneath its fringe +of disordered feathery hair, was literally--transfigured. A glory, +similar to the glory he had seen that same evening upon the face of the +housekeeper, still shone and flickered about the eyes and forehead. The +signature of the soul, brilliant in purity, lay there, transforming the +insignificance of the features with the grandeur and nobility of its +own power. + +"I am honored,--too gloriously honored!" was the singular cry that +escaped his lips, vainly seeking words to express an emotion of the +unknown, "I am honored as the sun... and as the stars...!" + +And so fierce was the tide of emotion that rose within him at the sight, +so strong the sense of gratitude to the man and girl who had shown him +how his true Self might contain so great a glory, that he turned with a +cry like that of a child bewildered by the loss of some incomprehensible +happiness--turned and flung himself first upon the breast of the big +clergyman, and then into the open arms of the radiant Miriam, with sobs +and tears of wonder that absolutely refused to be restrained. + + + + +Chapter VI + + +I + +The situation at this point of his amazing adventure seems to have been +that the fear Spinrobin felt about the nature of the final Experiment was +met and equalized by his passionate curiosity regarding it. Had these +been the only two forces at work, the lightest pressure in either +direction would have brought him to a decision. He would have accepted +the challenge and stayed; or he would have hesitated, shirked, and left. + +There was, however, another force at work upon which he had hardly +calculated at the beginning, and that force now came into full +operation and controlled his decision with margin and to spare. He +loved Miriam; and even had he not loved her, it is probable that her +own calm courage would have put him to shame and made him "face the +music." He could no more have deserted her than he could have deserted +himself. The die was cast. + +Moreover, if the certainty that Mr. Skale was trafficking in dangerous +and unlawful knowledge was formidable enough to terrify him, for Miriam, +at least, it held nothing alarming. She had no qualms, knew no +uneasiness. She looked forward to the end with calmness, even with joy, +just as ordinary good folk look forward to a heaven beyond death. For she +had never known any other ideal. Mr. Skale to her was father, mother and +God. He had brought her up during all the twenty years of her life in +this solitude among the mountains, choosing her reading, providing her +companionship, training her with the one end in view of carrying out his +immense and fire-stealing purpose. + +She had never dreamed of any other end, and had been so drilled with the +idea that this life was but a tedious training-place for a worthier state +to come, that she looked forward, naturally enough, with confidence and +relief to the great Experiment that should bring her release. She knew +vaguely that there was a certain awful danger involved, but it never for +one instant occurred to her that Mr. Skale could fail. And, so far, +Spinrobin had let no breath of his own terror reach her, or attempted +ever to put into her calm mind the least suggestion that the experiment +might fail and call down upon them the implacable and destructive forces +that could ruin them body and soul forever. For this, plainly expressed, +was the form in which his terror attacked him when he thought about it. +Skale was tempting the Olympian powers to crush him. + +It was about this time, however, as has been seen from a slight incident +in the last chapter, that a change began to steal, at first +imperceptibly, then obviously, over their relations together. Spinrobin +had been in the house three weeks--far longer, no doubt, than any of the +other candidates. There only remained now the final big tests. The +preliminary ones were successfully passed. Miriam knew that very soon the +moment would come for him to stay--or go. And it was in all probability +this reflection that helped her to make certain discoveries in herself +that at first she did not in the least understand. + +Spinrobin, however, understood perfectly. His own heart made him +intuitive enough for that. And the first signs thrilled and moved him +prodigiously. His account of it all is like no love story that has ever +been heard, for in the first place this singular girl hardly breathed +about her the reality of an actual world. She had known nothing beyond +the simple life in this hollow of the hills on the one hand, and on the +other the portentous conceptions that peopled the region of dream +revealed by the clergyman. And in the second place she had no standards +but her own instincts to judge by, for Mrs. Mawle, in spite of her +devotion to the girl, suffered under too great disabilities to fill the +place of a mother, while Mr. Skale was too lost in his vast speculations +to guide her except in a few general matters, and too sure of her at the +same time to reflect that she might ever need detailed guidance. Her +exceedingly natural and wholesome bringing-up on the one hand, and her +own native purity and good sense on the other, however, led her fairly +straight; while the fact that Spinrobin, with his modesty and his fine +aspirations, was a "little gentleman" into the bargain, ensured that no +unlawful temptation should be placed in her way, or undue pressure, based +upon her ignorance, employed. + + +II + +They were coming down one afternoon from the mountains soon after the +test of calling his name, and they were alone, the clergyman being +engaged upon some mysterious business that had kept him out of sight all +day. They did not talk much, but they were happy in each other's company, +Spinrobin more than happy. Much of the time, when the ground allowed, +they went along hand in hand like children. + +"Miriam," he had asked on the top of the moors, "did I ever tell you +about Winky--my little friend Winky?" And she had looked up with a smile +and shaken her head. "But I like the name," she added; "I should like to +hear, please." And he told her how as a boy he had invoked various folk +to tease his sister, of whom Winky was chief, but in telling the story he +somehow or other always referred to the little person by name, and never +once revealed his sex. He told, too, how he sat all night on the lawn +outside his sister's window to intercept the expected visit. + +"Winky," she said, speaking rather low, "is a true name, of course. +You really created Winky--called Winky into being." For to her now +this seemed as true and possible as it had seemed to himself at the +age of ten. + +"Oh, I really loved Winky," he replied enthusiastically, and was at the +same moment surprised to feel her draw away her hand. "Winky lived for +years in my very heart." + +And the next thing he knew, after a brief silence between them, was +that he heard a sob, and no attempt to smother it either. In less than +a second he was beside her and had both her hands in his. He understood +in a flash. + +"You precious baby," he cried, "but Winky was a little man. He +wasn't a girl!" + +She looked up through her tears--oh, but how wonderful her grey eyes were +through tears!--and made him stand still before her and repeat his +sentence. And she said, "I know it's true, but I like to hear you say it, +and that's why I asked you to repeat it." + +"Miriam," he said to her softly, kneeling down on the heather at her +feet, "there's only one name in my heart, I can tell you that. I heard it +sing and sing the moment I came into this house, the very instant I first +saw you in that dark passage. I knew perfectly well, ages and ages ago, +that one day a girl with your name would come singing into my life to +make me complete and happy, but I never believed that she would look as +beautiful as you are." He kissed the two hands he held. "Or that +she--would--would think of me as you do," he stammered in his passion. + +And then Miriam, smiling down on him through her tears, bent and kissed +his feathery hair, and immediately after was on her knees in front of him +among the heather. + +"I own you," she said quite simply. "I know your name, and you know mine. +Whatever happens--" But Spinrobin was too happy to hear any more, and +putting both arms round her neck, he kissed the rest of her words away +into silence. + +And in the very middle of this it was that the girl gently, but very +firmly, pushed him from her, and Spinrobin in the delicacy of his mind +understood that for the first time in her curious, buried life the +primitive instincts had awakened, so that she knew herself a woman, and a +woman, moreover, who loved. + + * * * * * + +Thus caught in a bewildering network of curiosity, fear, wonder, +and--love, Spinrobin stayed on, and decided further that should the +clergyman approve him he would not leave. Yet his intimate relations now +with Miriam, instead of making it easier for him to learn the facts, made +it on the other hand more difficult. For he could not, of course, make +use of her affection to learn secrets that Mr. Skale did not yet wish him +to know. And, further, he had no desire to be disloyal either to him. +None the less he was sorely tempted to ask her what the final experiment +was, and what the 'empty' rooms contained. And most of all what the great +name was they were finally to utter by means of the human chord. + +The emotions playing about him at this time, however, were too +complicated and too violent to enable him to form a proper judgment of +the whole affair. It seems, indeed, that this calmer adjudication never +came to him at all, for even to this day the mere mention of the +clergyman's name brings to his round cheeks a flush of that enthusiasm +and wonder which are the enemies of all sober discrimination. Skale still +remains the great battering force of his life that carried him off his +feet towards the stars, and sent his imagination with wings of fire +tearing through the Unknown to a goal that once attained should make them +all four as gods. + + + + +Chapter VII + + +I + +And thus the affair moved nearer to its close. The theory and practice of +molding form by means of sound was the next bang at his mind--delivered +in the clergyman's most convincing manner, and, in view of the proofs +that soon followed, an experience that seemed to dislocate the very +foundations of his visible world, deemed hitherto secure enough at least +to stand on. + +Had it all consisted merely of talk on Mr. Skale's part the secretary +would have known better what to think. It was the interludes of practical +proof that sent his judgment so awry. These definite, sensible results, +sandwiched in between all the visionary explanation, left him utterly at +sea. He could not reconcile them altogether with hypnotism. He could +only, as an ordinary man, already with a bias in the mystical direction, +come to the one conclusion that this overwhelming and hierophantic man +was actually in touch with cisterns of force so terrific as to be +dangerous to what he had hitherto understood to be--life. It was easy +enough for the clergyman, in his optimistic enthusiasm, to talk about +their leading to a larger life. But what if the experiment failed, and +these colossal powers ran amok upon the world--and upon the invokers? + +Moreover--chief anxiety of all--what was this name to be experimented +with? What was the nature of this force that Skale hoped to invoke--so +mighty that it should make them "as gods," so terrible that a chord alone +could compass even the first of its stupendous syllables? + +And, further, he was still haunted with the feeling that other "beings" +occupied certain portions of the rambling mansion, and more than once +recently he had wakened in the night with an idea, carried over from +dreams possibly, that the corridor outside his bedroom was moving and +alive with footsteps. "From dreams possibly," for when he went and peered +shivering through the narrow crack of the half-opened door, he saw +nothing unusual. And another time--he was awake beyond question at the +moment, for he had been reading till two o'clock and had but just +extinguished the candle--he had heard a sound that he found impossible to +describe, but that sent all the blood with a swift rush from the region +of his heart. It was not wind; it was not the wood cracking with the +frost; it was not snow sliding from the slates outside. It was something +that simultaneously filled the entire building, yet sounded particularly +loud just outside his door; and it came with the abrupt suddenness of a +report. It made him think of all the air in the rooms and halls and +passages being withdrawn by immense suction, as though a gigantic dome +had been dropped over the building in order to produce a vacuum. And just +after it he heard, unmistakably, the long soft stride of Skale going past +his door and down the whole length of the corridor--stealthily, very +quickly, with the hurry of anxiety or alarm in his silence and his speed. + +This, moreover, had now happened twice, so that imagination seemed a +far-fetched explanation. And on both occasions the clergyman had remained +invisible on the day following until the evening, and had then +reappeared, quiet and as usual, but with an atmosphere of immense +vibratory force somehow about his person, and a glow in his face and eyes +that at moments seemed positively colored. + +No word of explanation, however, had as yet been forthcoming of these +omens, and Spinrobin waited with what patience he could, meanwhile, for +the final test which he knew to be close upon him. And in his diary, the +pages usually left blank now because words failed him, he wrote a +portion of Anone's cry that had caught his memory and expressed a little +of what he felt: + +... for fiery thoughts +Do shape themselves within me, more and more, +Whereof I catch the issue, as I hear +Dead sounds at night come from the inmost hills, +_Like footsteps upon wool_.... + + +II + +It was within three days of the expiration of his trial month that he +then had this conversation with the clergyman, which he understood quite +well was offered by way of preparation for the bigger tests about to +come. He has reported what he could of it; it seemed to him at the time +both plausible and absurd; it was of a piece, that is, with the rest of +the whole fabulous adventure. + +Mr. Skale, as they walked over the snowy moors in the semi-darkness +between tea and dinner, had been speaking to him about the practical +results obtainable by sound-vibrations (what he already knew for that +matter), and how it is possible by fiddling long enough upon a certain +note to fiddle down a bridge and split it asunder. From that he passed on +to the scientific fact that the ultimate molecules of matter are not only +in constant whirring motion, but that also they do not actually touch one +another. The atoms composing the point of a pin, for instance, shift and +change without ceasing, and--there is space between them. + +Then, suddenly taking Spinrobin's arm, he came closer, his booming tone +dropping to a whisper: + +"To change the form of anything," he said in his ear, "is merely to +change the arrangement of those dancing molecules, to alter their rate of +vibration." His eyes, even in the obscurity of the dusk, went across the +other's face like flames. + +"By means of sound?" asked the other, already beginning to feel eerie. + +The clergyman nodded his great head in acquiescence. + +"Just as the vibrations of heat-waves," he said after a pause, "can +alter the form of a metal by melting it, so the vibrations of sound can +alter the form of a thing by inserting themselves between those +whirling molecules and changing their speed and arrangement--change the +outline, that is." + +The idea seemed fairly to buffet the little secretary in the face, but +Mr. Skale's proximity was too overpowering to permit of very clear +thinking. Feeling that a remark was expected from him, he managed to +ejaculate an obvious objection in his mind. + +"But is there any sound that can produce vibrations fine and rapid +enough--to--er--accomplish such a result?" + +Mr. Skale appeared almost to leap for pleasure as he heard it. In reality +he merely straightened himself up. + +"That," he cried aloud, to the further astonishment and even alarm of his +companion, "is another part of my discovery--an essential particular of +it: the production of sound-vibrations fine and rapid enough to alter +shapes! Listen and I will tell you!" He lowered his voice again. "I have +found out that by uttering the true inner name of anything I can set in +motion harmonics--harmonics, note well, half the wave length and twice +the frequency!--that are delicate and swift enough to insert themselves +between the whirling molecules of any reasonable object--any object, I +mean, not too closely or coherently packed. By then swelling or lowering +my voice I can alter the scale, size or shape of that object almost +indefinitely, its parts nevertheless retaining their normal relative +proportions. I can scatter it to a huge scale by separating its molecules +indefinitely, or bring them so closely together that the size of the +object would be reduced to a practical invisibility!" + +"Re-create the world, in fact!" gasped Spinrobin, feeling the earth he +knew slipping away under his feet. + +Mr. Skale turned upon him and stood still a moment. The huge moors, +glimmering pale and unreal beneath their snow, ran past them into +the sky--silent forms corresponding to who knows what pedal notes? +The wind sighed--audible expression of who shall say what mighty +shapes?... Something of the passion of sound, with all its mystery and +splendor, entered his heart in that windy sigh. Was anything real? Was +anything permanent?... Were Sound and Form merely interchangeable symbols +of some deeper uncataloged Reality? And was the visible cohesion after +all the illusory thing? + +"Re-mold the whole universe, sir!" he roared through the darkness, in a +way that made the other wish for the touch of Miriam's hand to steady +him. "I could make you, my dear Spinrobin, immense, tiny, invisible, or +by a partial utterance of your name, permanently crooked. I could +overwhelm your own vibrations and withdraw their force, as by suction of +a vacuum, absorbing yourself into my own being. By uttering the name of +this old earth, if I knew it, I could alter its face, toss the forests +like green dust into the sea, and lift the pebbles of the seashore to the +magnitude of moons! Or, did I know the true name of the sun, I could +utter it in such a way as to identify myself with its very being, and so +escape the pitiful terrors of a limited personal existence!" + +He seized his companion's arm and began to stride down the mountainside +at a terrific pace, almost lifting Spinrobin from his feet as he did so. +About the ears of the panting secretary the wild words tore like bullets, +whistling a new and dreadful music. + +"My dear fellow," he shouted through the night, "at the Word of Power of +a true man the nations would rush into war, or sink suddenly into eternal +peace; the mountains be moved into the sea, and the dead arise. To know +the sounds behind the manifestations of Nature, the names of mechanical +as well as of psychical Forces, of Hebrew angels, as of Christian +virtues, is to know Powers that you can call upon at will--and use! Utter +them in the true vibratory way and you waken their counterpart in +yourself and stir thus mighty psychic powers into activity in your Soul." + +He rained the words down upon the other's head like a tempest. + +"Can you wonder that the walls of Jericho fell flat before a 'Sound,' +or that the raging waves of the sea lay still before a voice that +called their Name? My discovery, Mr. Spinrobin, will run through the +world like a purifying fire. For to utter the true names of +individuals, families, tribes and nations, will be to call them to the +knowledge of their highest Selves, and to lift them into tune with the +music of the Voice of God." + +They reached the front door, where the gleam of lamps shone with a homely +welcome through the glass panels. The clergyman released his companion's +arm; then bent down towards him and added in a tone that held in it for +the first time something of the gravity of death: + +"Only remember--that to utter falsely, to pronounce incorrectly, to call +a name incompletely, is the beginning of all evil. For it is to lie with +the very soul. It is also to evoke forces without the adequate +corresponding shape that covers and controls them, and to attract upon +yourself the destructive qualities of these Powers--to your own final +disintegration and annihilation." + +Spinrobin entered the house, filled with a sense of awe that was cold and +terrible, and greater than all his other sensations combined. The winds +of fear and ruin blew shrill about his naked soul. None the less he was +steadfast. He would remain to bless. Mr. Skale might be violent in mind, +unbalanced, possibly mad; but his madness thundered at the doors of +heaven, and the sound of that thundering completed the conquest of his +admiration. He really believed that when the end came those mighty doors +would actually open. And the thought woke a kind of elemental terror in +him that was not of this world--yet marvelously attractive. + + +III + +That night the singular rushing sound again disturbed him. It seemed as +before to pass through the entire building, but this time it included a +greater space in its operations, for he fancied he could hear it outside +the house as well, traveling far up into the recesses of the dark +mountains. Like the sweep of immense draughts of air it went down the +passage and rolled on into the sky, making him think of the clergyman's +suggestion that some sounds might require airwaves of a hundred miles +instead of a few inches, too vast to be heard as sound. And shortly after +it followed the great gliding stride of Mr. Skale himself down the +corridor. That, at least, was unmistakable. + +During the following day, moreover, Mr. Skale remained invisible. +Spinrobin, of course, had never permitted himself to search the house, or +even to examine the other rooms in his own corridor. The quarters where +Miriam slept were equally unknown to him. But he was quite certain that +these prolonged periods of absence were spent by the clergyman in some +remote part of the rambling building where there existed isolated, if not +actually secret, rooms in which he practiced the rituals of some +dangerous and intrepid worship. And these intimidating and mysterious +sounds at night were, of course, something to do with the forces he +conjured.... + +The day was still and windless, the house silent as the grave. He walked +about the hills during the afternoon, practicing his Hebrew "Names" and +"Words" like a schoolboy learning a lesson. And all about him the slopes +of mountain watched him, listening. So did the sheet of snow, shining in +the wintry sunlight. The clergyman seemed to have put all sound in his +pocket and taken it away with him. The absence of anything approaching +noise became almost oppressive. It was a Silence that prepares. Spinrobin +went about on tiptoe, spoke to Miriam in whispers, practiced his Names in +hushed, expectant tones. He almost expected to see the moors and +mountains open their deep sides and let the Sounds of which they were the +visible shape escape awfully about him.... + +In these hours of solitude, all that Skale had told him, and more still +that he divined himself, haunted him with a sense of disquieting reality. +Inaudible sounds of fearful volume, invisible forms of monstrous +character, combinations of both even, impended everywhere about him. He +became afraid lest he might stumble, as Skale had done, on the very note +that should release them and bring them howling, leaping, crashing about +his ears. Therefore, he tried to make himself as small as possible; he +muffled steps and voice and personality. If he could, he would have +completely disappeared. + +He looked forward to Skale's return, but when evening came he was still +alone, and he dined _tête-à-tête_ with Miriam for the first time. And +she, too, he noticed, was unusually quiet. Almost they seemed to have +entered the world of Mrs. Mawle, the silent regions of the deaf. But for +the most part it is probable that these queer impressions were due to the +unusual state of Spinrobin's imagination. He knew that it was his last +night in the place--unless the clergyman accepted him; he knew also that +Mr. Skale had absented himself with a purpose, and that the said purpose +had to do with the test of Alteration of Forms by Sound, which would +surely be upon him before the sun rose. So that, one way and another, it +was natural enough that his nerves should have been somewhat overtaxed. + +The presence of Miriam and Mrs. Mawle, however, did much to soothe him. +The latter, indeed, mothered the pair of them quite absurdly, smiling all +the time while she moved about softly with the dishes, and doing her best +to make them eat enough for four. Between courses she sat at the end of +the room, waiting in the shadows till Miriam beckoned to her, and once or +twice going so far as to put her hand upon Spinrobin's shoulder +protectively. + +His own mind, however, all the time was full of charging visions. He kept +thinking of the month just past and of the amazing changes it had brought +into his thoughts. He realized, too, now that Mr. Skale was away, +something of the lonely and splendid courage of the man, following this +terrific, perhaps mad, ideal, day in day out, week in week out, for +twenty years and more, his faith never weakening, his belief undaunted. +Waves of pity, too, invaded him for the first time--pity for this sweet +girl, brought up in ignorance of any other possible world; pity for the +deaf old housekeeper, already partially broken, and both sacrificed to +the dominant idea of this single, heaven-climbing enthusiast; pity last +of all for himself, swept headlong before he had time to reflect, into +the audacious purpose of this violent and headstrong super-man. + +All manner of emotions stirred now this last evening in his perplexed +breast; yet out of the general turmoil one stood forth more clearly than +the rest--his proud consciousness that he was taking an important part in +something really big at last. Behind the screen of thought and emotion +which veiled so puzzlingly the truth, he divined for the first time in +his career a golden splendor. If it also terrified him, that was only his +cowardice.... In the same way it might be splendid to jump into Niagara +just above the falls to snatch a passing flower that seemed more +wonderful than any he had seen before, but--! + +"Miriam, tomorrow is my last day," he said suddenly, catching her grey +eyes upon him in the middle of his strange reflections. "Tonight may be +my last night in this house with you." + +The girl made no reply, merely looking up and smiling at him. But the +singing sensation that usually accompanied her gaze was not present. + +"That was very nearly--a discord," she observed presently, referring to +his remark. "It was out of tune!" And he realized with a touch of shame +what she meant. For it was not true that this was his last evening; he +knew really that he would stay on and that Mr. Skale would accept him. +Quick as a flash, with her simple intuition, she felt that he had said +this merely to coax from her some sign of sympathy or love. And the girl +was not to be drawn. She knew quite well that she held him and that their +fate, whatever it might be, lay together. + +The gentle rebuke made him silent again. They sat there smiling at one +another across the table, and old Mrs. Mawle, sitting among the shadows +at the far end of the room, her hands crossed in front of her, her white +evening cap shining like a halo above her patient face, watched them, +also smiling. The rest of the strange meal passed without conversation, +for the great silence that all day had wrapped the hills seemed to have +invaded the house as well and laid its spell upon every room. A deep +hush, listening and expectant, dropped more and more about the building +and about themselves. + +After dinner they sat for twenty minutes together before the library +fire, their toes upon the fender, for, contrary to her habit, Miriam had +not vanished at once to her own quarters. + +"We're not alone here," remarked Spinrobin presently, in a low voice, and +she nodded her head to signify agreement. The presence of Mr. Skale when +he was in the house but invisible, was often more real and tremendous +than when he stood beside them and thundered. Some part of him, some +emanation, some potent psychic messenger from his personality, kept them +closely company, and tonight the secretary felt it very vividly. His +remark was really another effort to keep in close touch with Miriam, even +in thought. He needed her more than ever in this sea of silence that was +gathering everywhere about him. Gulf upon gulf it rose and folded over +him. His anxiety became every moment more acute, and those black serpents +of fear that he dreaded were not very far away. By every fiber in his +being he felt certain that a test which should shake the very foundations +of his psychical life was slowly and remorselessly approaching him. + +Yet, though he longed to speak outright and demand of Miriam what she +knew, and especially that she should reveal the place of the clergyman's +concealment and what portent it was that required all this dread and +muted atmosphere for its preparation, he kept a seal upon his lips, +realizing that loyalty forbade, and that the knowledge of her contempt +would be even worse than the knowledge of the truth. + +And so in due course she rose to go, and as he opened the door for her +into the hall, she paused a moment and turned towards him. A sudden +inexplicable thrill flashed through him as she turned her eyes upon his +face, for he thought at first she was about to speak. He has never +forgotten the picture as she stood there so close to his side, the +lamplight on her slim figure in its white silk blouse and neat dark +skirt, the gloom of the unlit hall and staircase beyond--stood there an +instant, then put both her arms about his neck, drew him down to her, and +kissed him gently on both cheeks. Twice she kissed him, then was gone +into the darkness, so softly that he scarcely heard her steps, and he +stood between the shadows and the light, her perfume still lingering, and +with it the sweet and magical blessing that she left behind. For that +caress, he understood, was the innocent childlike caress of their first +days, and with all the power of her loving little soul in it she had +given him the message that he craved: "Courage! And keep a brave heart, +dear Spinny, _tonight_!" + + + + +Chapter VIII + + +I + +Spinrobin lingered a while in the library after Miriam was gone, then +feeling slightly ill at ease in the room now that her presence was +withdrawn, put the lights out, saw that the windows were properly barred +and fastened, and went into the hall on his way to bed. + +He looked at the front door, tried the chain, and made sure that both +top and bottom bolts were thrown. Why he should have taken these +somewhat unusual precautions was not far to seek, though at the moment +he could not probably have explained. The desire for protection was +awake in his being, and he took these measures of security and defense +because it sought to express itself, as it were, even automatically. +Spinrobin was afraid. + +Up the broad staircase he went softly with his lighted candle, leaving +the great hall behind him full to the brim with shadows--shadows that +moved and took shape. His own head and shoulders in monstrous outline +poured over the walls and upper landings, and thence leaped to the +skylight overhead. As he passed the turn in the stairs, the dark +contents of the hall below rushed past in a single mass, like an +immense extended wing, and settled abruptly at his back, following him +thence to the landing. + +Once there, he went more quickly, moving on tiptoe, and so reached his +own room halfway down. He passed two doors to get there; another two lay +beyond; all four, as he believed, being always locked. It was these four +rooms that conjured mightily with his imagination always, for these were +the rooms he pictured to himself, though without a vestige of proof, as +being occupied. It was from the further ones--one or other of them--he +believed Mr. Skale came when he had passed down the corridor at two in +the morning, stealthily, hurriedly, on the heels of that rush of sound +that made him shake in his bed as he heard it. + +In his own room, however, surrounded by the familiar and personal objects +that reminded him of normal life, he felt more at home. He undressed +quickly, all his candles alight, and then sat before the fire in the +armchair to read a little before getting into bed. + +And he read for choice Hebrew--Hebrew poetry, and on this particular +occasion, the books of Job and Ezekiel. For nothing had so soothing and +calming an effect upon him as the mighty yet simple imagery of these +sonorous stanzas; they invariably took him "out of himself," or at any +rate out of the region of small personal alarms. And thus, letting his +fancy roam, it seems, he was delighted to find that gradually the fears +which had dominated him during the day and evening disappeared. He passed +with the poetry into that region of high adventure which his nature in +real life denied him. The verses uplifted him in a way that made his +recent timidity seem the mere mood of a moment, or at least negligible. +His memory, as one thing suggested another, began to give up its dead, +and some of Blake's drawings, seen recently in London with prodigious +effect, began to pass vividly before his mental vision. + +The symbolism of what he was reading doubtless suggested the memory. He +felt himself caught in the great invisible nets of wonder that forever +swept the world. The littleness of modern life, compared to that ancient +and profound spirit which sought the permanent things of the soul, +haunted him with curious insistence. He suffered a keen, though somewhat +mixed realization of his actual insignificance, yet of his potential +sublimity could he but identify himself with his ultimate Self in the +region of vision.... His soul was aware of finding itself alternately +ruffled and exalted as he read ... and pondered ... as he visualized to +some degree the giant Splendors, the wonderful Wheels, the spirit Wings +and Faces and all the other symbols of potent imagery evoked by the +imagination of that old Hebrew world.... + +So that when, an hour later, pacified and sleepy, he rose to go to bed, +this poetry seems to have left a very marked effect upon his +mind--mingled, naturally enough, with the thought of Mr. Skale. For on +his way across the floor, having adjusted the fire-screen, he distinctly +remembered thinking what a splendid "study" the clergyman would have made +for one of Blake's representations of the Deity--the flowing beard, the +great nose, the imposing head and shoulders, the potentialities of the +massive striding figure, surrounded by a pictorial suggestion of all the +sound-forces he was forever talking about.... + +This thought was his last, and it was without fear of any kind. Merely, +he insists, that his imagination was touched, and in a manner perfectly +accountable, considering the ingredients of its contents at the time. + +And so he hopped nimbly into bed. On the little table beside him stood +the candle and the copy of the Hebrew text he had been reading, with its +parallel columns in the two languages. His Jaeger slippers were beneath +the chair, his clothes, carefully folded, on the sofa, his collar, studs +and necktie in a row on the top of the mahogany chest of drawers. On the +mantelpiece stood the glass jar of heather, filled that very day by +Miriam. He saw it just as he blew out the candle, and Miriam, +accordingly, was the last vision that journeyed with him into the country +of dreams and sweet forgetfulness. + +The night was perfectly still. Winter, black and hard, lay about the +house like an iron wall. No wind stirred. Snow covered the world of +mountain and moor outside, and Silence, supreme at midnight, poured all +her softest forces upon the ancient building and its occupants. +Spinrobin, curled up in the middle of the big four-poster, slept like a +tired baby. + + +II + +It was a good deal later when somewhere out of that mass of silence rose +the faint beginnings of a sound that stirred first cautiously about the +very foundations of the house, and then, mounting inch by inch, through +the hall, up the staircase, along the corridor, reached the floor where +the secretary slept so peacefully, and finally entered his room. Its +muffled tide poured most softly over all. At first only this murmur was +audible, as of "footsteps upon wool," of wind or drifting snow, a mere +ghost of sound; but gradually it grew, though still gentle and subdued, +until it filled the space from ceiling unto floor, pressing in like water +dripping into a cistern with ever-deepening note as its volume increased. +The trembling of air in a big belfry where bells have been a-ringing +represents best the effect, only it was a trifle sharper in +quality--keener, more alive. + +But, also, there was something more in it--something gong-like and +metallic, yet at the same time oddly and suspiciously human. It held a +temper, too, that somehow woke the "panic sense," as does the hurried +note of a drum--some quick emotional timbre that stirs the sleeping +outposts of apprehension and alarm. On the other hand, it was constant, +neither rising nor falling, and thus ordinarily, it need not have stirred +any emotion at all--least of all the emotion of consternation. Yet, there +was that in it which struck at the root of security and life. It was a +revolutionary sound. + +And as it took possession of the room, covering everything with its +garment of vibration, it slipped in also, so to speak, between the +crevices of the sleeping, unprotected Spinrobin, coloring his dreams--his +innocent dreams--with the suggestion of nightmare dread. Of course, he +was too deeply wrapped in slumber to receive the faintest intimation of +this waking analysis. Otherwise he might, perhaps, have recognized the +kind of primitive, ancestral dread his remote forefathers knew when the +inexplicable horror of a tidal wave or an eclipse of the sun overwhelmed +them with the threatened alteration of their entire known universe. + +The sleeping figure in that big four-poster moved a little as the tide of +sound played upon it, fidgeting this way and that. The human ball +uncoiled, lengthened, straightened out. The head, half hidden by folds of +sheet and pillowcase, emerged. + +Spinrobin unfolded, then opened his eyes and stared about him, +bewildered, in the darkness. + +"Who's there? Is that you--anybody?" he asked in a whisper, the confusion +of sleep still about him. + +His voice seemed dead and smothered, as though the other sound +overwhelmed it. The same instant, more widely awake, he realized that his +bedroom was _humming_. + +"What's that? What's the matter?" he whispered again, wondering uneasily +at the noise. + +There was no answer. The vague dread transferred itself adroitly from his +dream-consciousness to his now thoroughly awakened mind. It began to dawn +upon him that something was wrong. He noticed that the fire was out, and +the room dark and heavy. He realized dimly the passage of time--a +considerable interval of time--and that he must have been asleep several +hours. Where was he? _Who_ was he? What, in the name of mystery and +night, had been going on during the interval? He began to shake all +over--feverishly. Whence came this noise that made everything in the +darkness tremble? + +As he fumbled hurriedly for the matchbox, his fingers caught in the folds +of pillowcase and sheet, and he struggled violently to get them clear +again. It was while doing this that the impression first reached him that +the room was no longer quite the same. It had changed while he slept. +Even in the darkness he felt this, and shuddering pulled the blankets +over his head and shoulders, for this idea of the changed room plucked at +the center of his heart, where terror lay waiting to leap out upon him. + +After what seemed five minutes he found the matchbox and struck a light, +and all the time the torrent of sound poured about his ears with such an +effect of bewilderment that he hardly realized what he was doing. A +strange terror poured into him that _he_ would change with the room. At +length the match flared, and while he lit the candle with shaking +fingers, he looked wildly, quickly about him. At once the sounds rushed +upon him from all directions, burying him, so to speak, beneath vehement +vibrations of the air that rained in upon him.... Yes, the room had +indeed changed, actually changed ... but before he could decide where the +difference lay the candle died down to a mere spark, waiting for the wick +to absorb the grease. It seemed like half an hour before the yellow +tongue grew again, so that he finally saw clearly. + +But--saw what? Saw that the room had horribly altered while he slept, +yes! But how altered? What in the name of all the world's deities was the +matter with it? The torrent of sound, now growing louder and louder, so +confused him at first, and the dancing patchwork of light and shadow the +candle threw so increased his bewilderment, that for some minutes he +sought in vain to steady his mind to the point of accurate observation. + +"God of my Fathers!" cried Spinrobin at last under his breath, and hardly +knowing what he said, "if it's not moving!" + +For this, indeed, was what he saw while the candle flame burned steadily +upon a room that was no longer quite recognizable. + +At first, with the natural exaggeration due to shock, he thought the +whole room moved, but as his powers of sight came with time to report +more truly, he perceived that this was only true of certain things in it. +It was not the ceiling that poured down in fluid form to meet a floor +ever gliding and shifting forward into outlandish proportions, but it was +certain objects--one here, another there--midway between the two that, +having assumed new and unaccustomed outlines, lent to the rest of the +chamber a general appearance of movement and an entirely altered +expression. And these objects, he perceived, holding tightly to the +bedclothes with both hands as he stared, were two: the dark, +old-fashioned cupboard on his left, and the plush curtains that draped +the window on his right. He himself, and the bed and the rest of the +furniture were stationary. The room as a whole stood still, while these +two common and familiar articles of household furnishing took on a form +and an expression utterly foreign to what he had always known as a +cupboard and a curtain. This outline, this expression, moreover, if not +actually sinister, was grotesque to the verge of the sinister: monstrous. + +The difficulty of making any accurate observation at all was further +increased by the perplexity of having to observe two objects, not even on +the same side of the room. Their outlines, however, Spinrobin claims, +altered very slowly, wavering like the distorted reflections seen in +moving water, and unquestionably obeying in some way the pitch and volume +of the sound that continued to pour its resonant tide about the room. The +sound manipulated the shape; the connection between the two was evident. +That, at least, he grasped. Somebody hidden elsewhere in the house--Mr. +Skale probably, of course, in one of his secret chambers--was +experimenting with the "true names" of these two "common objects," +altering their normal forms by inserting the vibrations of sound between +their ultimate molecules. + +Only, this simple statement that his clearing mind made to itself in no +way accounted for the fascination of horror that accompanied the +manifestation. For he recognized it as the joy of horror and not alone +the torment. His blood ran swiftly to the rhythm of these humming +vibrations that filled the space about him; and his terror, his +bewilderment, his curious sense of elation seemed to him as messengers of +far more terrific sensations that communicated to him dimly the rushing +wonder of some aspect of the Unknown in its ultimate nature essentially +beautiful. + +This, however, only dawned upon him later, when the experiment was +complete and he had time to reflect upon it all next day; for, meanwhile, +to see the proportions he had known since childhood alter thus before his +eyes was unbelievably dreadful. To see your friend sufficiently himself +still to be recognizable, yet in essentials, at the same time, +grotesquely altered, would doubtless touch a climax of distress and +horror for you. The changing of these two things, so homely and +well-known in themselves, into something that was not themselves, +involved an idea of destruction that was worse than even death, for it +meant that the idea in the mind no longer corresponded to the visible +object there before the eyes. The correspondence was no longer a true +one. The result was a lie. + +To describe the actual forms assumed by these shifting and wavering +bodies is not possible, for when Spinrobin gives the details one simply +fails to recognize either cupboard or curtain. To say that the dark, +lumbering cupboard, standing normally against the wall down there in the +shadows, loomed suddenly forward and upward, bent, twisted, and stretched +out the whole of one side towards him like a misshapen arm, can convey +nothing of the world of new sensations that the little secretary felt +while actually watching it in progress in that haunted chamber of Skale's +mansion among the hills. Nor can one be thrilled with the extraordinary +sense of wonder that thrilled Spinrobin when he saw the faded plush +curtain hang across the window in such a way that it might well have +wrapped the whole of Wales into a single fold, yet without extending its +skirts beyond the actual walls of the room. For what he saw apparently +involved contradictions in words, and the fact is that no description of +what he saw is really possible at all. + +"Hark! By thunder!" he exclaimed, creeping out of bed with sheer stress +of excitement, while the sounds poured up through the floor as though +from cellars and tunnels where they lay stored beneath the house. They +sang and trembled about him with the menaces of a really exquisite alarm. +He moved cautiously out into the center of the room, not daring to +approach too close to the affected objects, yet furiously anxious to +discover how it was all done. For he was uncommonly "game" through it +all, and had himself well in hand from beginning to end. He was really +too excited, probably, to feel ordinary fear; it all swept him away too +mightily for that; he did not even notice the sting of the hot +candle-grease as it fell upon his bare feet. + +There he stood, plucky little Spinny, steady amid this shifting world, +master of his soul amid dissolution, his hair pointing out like ruffled +feathers, his blue eyes wide open and charged with a speechless wonder, +his face pale as chalk, lips apart, jaw a trifle dropped, one hand in the +pocket of his dressing-gown, and the other holding the candle at an angle +that showered grease upon the carpet of the Rev. Philip Skale as well as +upon his own ankles. There he stood, face to face with the grotesque +horror of familiar outlines gone wrong, the altered panorama of his known +world moving about him in a strange riot of sound and form. It was, he +understood, an amazing exhibition of the transforming power of sound--of +sound playing tricks with the impermanence and the illusion of Form. +Skale was making his words good. + +And behind the scenes he divined, with a shudder of genuine admiration, +the figure of the master of the ceremonies, somehow or other grown +colossal, as he had thought of him just before going to sleep--Philip +Skale, hidden in the secret places of the building, directing the +operations of this dreadful aspect of his revolutionary Discovery.... And +yet the thought brought a measure of comfort in its train, for was he not +also himself now included in the mighty scheme?... In his mind he saw +this giant Skale, with his great limbs and shoulders, his flowing, shaggy +beard, his voice of thunder and his portentous speculations, and, so +doing, felt himself merged in a larger world that made his own little +terrors and anxieties of but small account. Once again the sense of his +own insignificance disappeared as he realized that at last he was in the +full flood of an adventure that was providing the kind of escape he had +always longed for. + +Inevitably, then, his thought flew to Miriam, and as he remembered her +final word to him a few short hours ago in the hall below, he already +felt ashamed of the fear with which he had met the beginning of the +"test." He instantly felt steeped instead in the wonder and power of the +whole thing. His mind, though still trembling and shaken, came to rest. +He drew, that is, upon the larger powers of the Chord. + +And the interesting thing was that the moment this happened he noticed a +change begin to come over the room. With extraordinary swiftness the tide +of vibration lessened and the sound withdrew; the humming seemed to sink +back into the depths of the house; the thrill and delight of his recent +terrors fled with it. The air gradually ceased to shake and tremble; the +furniture, with a curious final shiver as of spinning coins about to +settle, resumed its normal shape. Once more the room, and with it the +world, became commonplace and dull. The test apparently was over. He had +met it with success. + +Spinrobin, holding the candle straight for the first time, turned back +towards the bed. He caught a passing glimpse of himself in the mirror as +he went--white and scattered he describes his appearance.... He climbed +again into bed, blew the candle out, put the matchbox under his pillow +within easy reach, and so once more curled himself up into a ball and +composed himself to sleep. + + + + +Chapter IX + + +I + +But he was hardly settled--there had not even been time to warm the +sheets again--when he was aware that the test, instead of being over, +was, indeed, but just beginning; and the detail that conveyed this +unwelcome knowledge to him, though small enough in itself, was yet +fraught with a crowded cargo of new alarms. It was a step upon the +staircase, approaching his room. + +He heard it the instant he lay still in bed after the shuffling process +known generally as "cuddling down." And he knew that it was approaching +because of the assistance the hall clock brought to his bewildered ears. +For the hall clock--a big, dignified piece of furniture with a deep +note--happened just then to strike the hour of two in the morning, and +there was a considerable interval between the two notes. He first heard +the step far below in the act of leaving the flagged hall for the +staircase; then the clock drowned it with its first stroke, and perhaps a +dozen seconds later, when the second stroke had died away, he heard the +step again, as it passed from the top of the staircase on to the +polished boards of the landing. The owner of the step, meanwhile, had +passed up the whole length of the staircase in the interval, and was now +coming across the landing in a direct line towards his bedroom door. + +"It _is_ a step, I suppose," it seems he muttered to himself, as with +head partially raised above the blankets he listened intently. "It's a +_step_, I mean...?" For the sound was more like a light tapping of a +little hammer than an actual step--some hard substance drumming +automatically upon the floor, while yet moving in advance. He recognized, +however, that there was intelligence behind its movements, because of the +sense of direction it displayed, and by the fact that it had turned the +sharp corner of the stairs; but the idea presented itself in fugitive +fashion to his mind--Heaven alone knows why--that it might be some +mechanical contrivance that was worked from the hall by a hand. For the +sound was too light to be the tread of a person, yet too "conscious" to +be merely a sound of the night operating mechanically. And it was unlike +the noise that the feet of any animal would make, any animal that he +could think of, that is. A four-footed creature suggested itself to his +mind, but without approval. + +The puzzling characteristics of the sound, therefore, contradictory as +they were, left him utterly perplexed, so that for some little time he +could not make up his mind whether to be frightened, interested or +merely curious. + +This uncertainty, however, lasted but a moment or two at the most, for an +appreciable pause outside his door was next followed by a noise of +scratching upon the panels, as of hands or paws, and then by the +shuffling of some living body that was flattening itself in an attempt to +squeeze through the considerable crack between door and flooring, and so +to enter the room. + +And, hearing it, Spinrobin this time was so petrified with an +instantaneous rush of terror, that at first he dared not even move to +find the matches again under his pillow. + +The pause was dreadful. He longed for brilliant light that should reveal +all parts of the room equally, or else for a thick darkness that should +conceal him from everything in the world. The uncertain flicker of a +single candle playing miserably between the two was the last thing in the +world to appeal to him. + +And then events crowded too thick and fast for him to recognize any one +emotion in particular from all the fire of them passing so swiftly in and +out among his hopelessly disorganized thoughts. Terror flashed, but with +it flashed also wonder and delight--the audacity of unreflecting +courage--and more--even a breathless worship of the powers, knowledge and +forces that lifted for him in that little bedroom the vast Transparency +that hides from men the Unknown. + +It is soon told. For a moment there was silence, and then he knew that +the invader had effected an entrance. There was barely time to marvel at +the snake-like thinness of the living creature that could avail itself of +so narrow a space, when to his amazement he heard the quick patter of +feet across the space of boarded flooring next the wall, and then the +silence that muffled them as they reached the carpet proper. + +Almost at the same second something leaped upon his bed, and there shot +swiftly across him a living thing with light, firm tread--a creature, so +far as he could form any judgment at all, about the size of a rabbit or a +cat. He felt the feet pushing through sheets and blankets upon his body. +They were little feet; how many, at that stage, he could not guess. Then +he heard the thud as it dropped to the floor upon the other side. + +The panic terror that in the dark it would run upon his bare exposed face +thus passed; and in that moment of intense relief Spinrobin gripped his +soul, so to speak, with both hands and made the effort of his life. +Whatever happened now he must have a light, be it only the light of a +single miserable candle. In that moment he felt that he would have +sacrificed all his hopes of the hereafter to have turned on a flood of +searching and brilliant sunshine into every corner of the +room--instantaneously. The thought that the creature might jump again +upon the bed and touch him before he could see, gave him energy to act. + +With dashes of terror shooting through him like spears of ice, he grabbed +the matchbox, and after a frenzied entanglement again with sheets and +pillow-case, succeeded in breaking four matches in quick succession. They +cracked, it seemed to him, like pistol shots, till he half expected that +this creature, waiting there in the darkness, must leap out in the +direction of the sound to attack him. The fifth lit, and a moment later +the candle was burning dimly, but with its usual exasperating leisure and +delay. As the flare died down, then gradually rose again, he fairly +swallowed the room with a single look, wishing there were eyes all over +his body. It was a very faint light. At first he saw nothing, heard +nothing--nothing alive, that is. + +"I must act! I must do something--at once!" he remembered thinking. For, +to wait meant to leave the choice and moment of attack to this other.... + +Cautiously, and very slowly, therefore, he wriggled to the edge of the +bed and slid over, searching with his feet for slippers, but finding +none, yet not daring to lower his eyes to look; then stood upright with +a sudden rush, shading the candle from his eyes with one hand and +peering over it. + +As a rule, in moments of overwhelming emotion, the eyes search too +eagerly, too furiously, to see properly at all; but this does not seem to +have been the case with Spinrobin. The shadows ran about like water and +the flickering of the candle-flame dazzled, but there, opposite to him, +over by the darkness of the dead fireplace, he saw instantly the small +black object that was the immediate cause of his terror. Its actual shape +was merged too much in the dark background to be clearly ascertainable, +but near the top of it, where presumably the head was, the candle-flame +shone reflected in two brilliant points of light that were directed +straight upon his face, and he knew that he was looking into the eyes of +a living creature that was not the very least on the defensive. It was a +living creature, aggressive and unafraid. + +For perhaps a couple of minutes--or was it seconds only?--these two +beings with the breath of life in them faced one another. Then Spinrobin +made a step cautiously in advance; lowering his candle he moved towards +it. This he did, partly to see better, partly to protect his bare legs. +The idea of protection, however, seems to have been merely instinct, for +at once this notion that it might dash forward to attack him was merged +in the unaccountable realization of a far grander emotion, as he +perceived that this "living creature" facing him was, for all its +diminutive size, both dignified and imposing. Something in its +atmosphere, something about its mysterious presentment there upon the +floor in its dark corner, something, perhaps, that flashed from its +brilliant and almost terrible eyes, managed to convey to him that it was +clothed with an importance and a significance not attached normally to +the animal world. It had "an air." It bore itself with power, with value, +almost with pride. + +This incongruous impression bereft him of the sensations of ordinary +fear, while it increased the sources of his confusion. Yet it convinced. +He knew himself face to face with some form of life that was considerable +in the true sense--spiritually. It exercised a fascination over him that +was at the moment beyond either explanation or belief. + +As he moved, moreover, the little dark object also moved--away from him, +as though resenting closer inspection. With action--again unlike the +action of any animal he could think of, and essentially dignified--both +rapid and nicely calculated, it ran towards the curtains behind. This +appearance of something stately that went with it was indefinable and +beyond everything impressive; for how in the world could such small +proportions and diminutive movements convey grandeur? And again Spinrobin +found it impossible to decide precisely how it moved--whether on four +legs or on two. + +Keeping the two points of light always turned upon him, it shot across +the floor, leaped easily upon a chair, passed with a nimble spring from +this to a table by the wall, still too much in obscurity to permit a +proper view; and then, while the amazed secretary approached cautiously +to follow its movements better, it crawled to the edge of the table, and +in so doing passed for the first time full across the pale zone of +flickering candlelight. + +Spinrobin, in that quick second, caught a glimpse of flying hair, and saw +that it moved either as a human being or as a bird--on two legs. + +The same moment it sprang deftly from the high table to the mantelpiece, +turned, stood erect, and looked at him with the whole glare of the light +upon its face; and Spinrobin, bereft of all power of intelligible +sensation whatever, saw to his unutterable distress that it was--a man. +The dignity of its movements had already stirred vaguely his sense of +awe, but now the realization beyond doubt of its diminutive _human_ shape +added a singularly acute touch of horror; and it was the combination of +the two emotions, possibly, that were responsible also for the two +remarkable impulses of which he was first conscious: first, a mad desire +to strike and kill; secondly, an imperious feeling that he must hide his +eyes in some act or other of worship! + +And it was then he realized that the man was--Philip Skale! + +Mr. Skale, scarcely a foot high, dressed as usual in black, flowing +beard, hooked nose, lambent, flashing eyes and all, stood there upon the +mantelpiece level with his secretary's face, not three feet separating +them, and--smiled at him. He was small as a Tanagra figure, and in +perfect proportion. + +It was unspeakably terrible. + + +II + +"Of course--I'm dreaming," cried Spinrobin, half aloud, half to the +figure before him. He searched behind him with one hand for solid +support. "You're a dream thing. It's some awful trick--God will +protect me--!" + +Mr. Skale's tiny lips moved. "No, no," his voice said, and it sounded as +from a great distance. "I'm no dream thing at all, and you are wide +awake. Look at me well. I am the man you know--Philip Skale. Look +straight into my eyes and be convinced." Again he smiled his kindly, +winning smile. "What you now see is nothing but a result of sounding my +true name in a certain way--very softly--to increase the cohesion of my +physical molecules and reduce my visible expression. Listen, and watch!" + +And Spinrobin, half stupefied, obeyed, feeling that his weakening knees +must in another moment give way and precipitate him to the floor. He was +utterly unnerved. The onslaught of terror and amazement was overwhelming. +For something dreadful beyond all words lay in the sight of this man, +whom he was accustomed to reverence in his gigantic everyday shape, here +reduced to the stature of a pygmy, yet compelling as ever, terrific even +when thus dwarfed. And to hear the voice of thunder that he knew so well +come to him disguised within this thin and almost wailing tone, passed +equally beyond the limits of what he could feel as emotion or translate +into any intelligible words or gesture. + +While, therefore, the secretary stood in awful wonder, doing as he was +told simply because he could do nothing else, the figure of the clergyman +moved with tiny steps to the edge of the mantelpiece, until it seemed as +though he meant in another moment to leap on to his companion's shoulder, +or into his arms. At the edge, however, he stopped--the brink of a +precipice, to him!--and Spinrobin then became aware that from his moving +lips, doll-like though bearded, his voice was issuing with an +ever-growing volume of sound and power. + +Vibrations of swiftly-increasing depth and wave-length were spreading +through the air about him, filling the room from floor to ceiling. What +the syllables actually uttered may have been he was too dazed to realize, +for no degree of concentration was possible to his mind at all; he only +knew that, before his smarting eyes, with this rising of the voice to its +old dominant inflexion, the figure of Mr. Philip Skale grew likewise, +indescribably; swelled, rose, spread upwards and outwards, but with the +parts ever passing slowly in consistent inter-relation, from minute to +minute. He became, always in perfect proportion, magnified and extended. +The growing form, moreover, kept pace exactly, and most beautifully, with +the increasing tide of sonorous vibration that flooded himself, its +utterer and the whole room. + +Spinrobin, it seems, had just sufficient self-control left to realize +that this sound was similar in quality to that which had first awakened +him and caused the outlines of the furniture to alter, when the sight of +Mr. Skale's form changing thus terribly before his eyes, and within the +touch of his very hand, became too much for him altogether.... + +What precisely happened he never knew. The sounds first enveloped him, +then drove him backwards with a sense of immense applied resistance. He +collapsed upon the sofa a few feet behind him, as though irresistibly +pushed. The power that impelled him charged vehemently through the little +room till it seemed the walls must burst asunder to give it scope, while +the sounds rose to such a volume that he figured himself drowned and +overpowered by their mighty vibrations as by the storm swells of the +Atlantic. Before he lost them as sound he seems thus to have been aware +of them as moving waves of air.... The next thing he took in was that +amid the waste of silence that now followed his inability to hear, the +figure of Philip Skale towered aloft towards the ceiling, till it seemed +positively to occupy all the available space in the room about him. + +Had he dropped upon the floor instead of upon the sofa it is probable +that at this point Spinrobin would have lost consciousness, at any rate +for a period; but that sofa, which luckily for his bones was so close +behind, galvanized him sharply back into some measure of self-control +again. Being provided with powerful springs, it shot him up into the air, +whence he relapsed with a series of smaller bounds into a normal sitting +posture. Still holding the lighted candle as best he could, the little +secretary bounced upon that sofa like a tennis ball. And the violent +motion shook him into himself, as it were. His tottering universe +struggled back into shape once more. He remembered vaguely that all this +was somehow a test of his courage and fitness. And this thought, +strengthened by a law of his temperament which forced him to welcome the +sweet, mad terror of the whole adventure, helped to call out the reserves +of his failing courage. + +He bounced upon his feet again--those bare feet plastered with candle +grease--and, turning his head, saw the clergyman, of incredible stature, +yet still apparently increasing, already over by the door. He was turning +the key with a hand the size--O horror!--of Spinrobin's breast. The next +moment his vast stooping body filled the entire entrance, blotting out +whole portions of the walls on either side, then was gone from the room. + +Leaving the candlestick on the sofa, his heart aflame with a fearful +ecstasy of curiosity, he dashed across the floor in pursuit, but Mr. +Skale, silently and with the swiftness of a river, was already down the +stairs before he had covered half the distance. + +Through the framework of the door Spinrobin saw this picture: + +Skale, like some awful Cyclops, stood upon the floor of the hall some +twenty feet below, yet rearing terrifically up through the well of the +building till his head and shoulders alone seemed to fill the entire +space beneath the skylight. Though his feet rested unquestionably upon +the ground, his face, huge as a planet in the sky, rose looming and half +lighted above the banisters of this second storey, his tangled locks +sweeping the ceiling, and his beard, like some dark river of hair, +flowing downwards through the night. And this spreading countenance of +cloud it was, hanging in the semi-darkness, that Spinrobin saw turn +slowly towards him across the faint flicker of the candlelight, look +straight down into his face, and smile. The great mouth and eyes +unquestionably smiled. And that smile, for all its vast terror, was +beyond words enchanting--like the spread laughter of a summer landscape. + +Among the spaces of the immense visage--reminding him curiously of his +boyhood's conception of the Creator--Spinrobin lost himself and grew +dizzy with a deadly yet delicious faintness. The mighty tenderness, the +compassion, the splendor of that giant smile overpowered him and +swallowed him up. + +For one second, in dreadful silence, he gazed. Then, rising to meet the +test with a courage that he felt might somehow involve the alteration if +not the actual destruction of his own little personality, but that also +proved his supreme gameness at the same time, he tried to smile in +return.... The strange and pitiful attempt upon his own face perhaps, in +the semi-obscurity, was not seen. He only remembers that he somehow found +strength to crawl forward and close the door with a bang, though not the +strength to turn the key and lock it, and that two seconds later, having +kicked the candle over and out in his flying leap, he was in the middle +of the bed under a confused pile of sheets and blankets, weeping with +muffled sobs in the darkness as though his heart must burst with the +wonder and terror of all he had witnessed. + +For, to the simple in heart, at the end of all possible stress and strain +of emotion, comes mercifully the blinding relief of tears.... + +And then, although too overcome to be able to prove it even to himself, +it was significant that, lying there smothered among the bedclothes, he +became aware of the presence of something astonishingly sweet and +comforting in his consciousness. It came quite suddenly upon him; the +reaction he experienced, he says, was very wonderful, for with it the +sense of absolute safety and security returned to him. Like a terrified +child in the darkness who suddenly knows that its mother stands by the +bed, all-powerful to soothe, he felt certain that some one had moved into +the room, was close beside him, and was even trying to smooth his pillow +and arrange the twisted bedclothes. + +He did not dare uncover his face to see, for he was still dominated by +the memory of Mr. Skale's portentous visage; but his ears were not so +easily denied, and he was positive that he heard a voice that called his +name as though it were the opening phrase of some sweet, childhood +lullaby. There was a touch about him somewhere, it seemed, of delicate +cool hands that brought with them the fragrance as of a scented summer +wind; and the last thing he remembered before he sank away into welcome +unconsciousness was an impression, fugitive and dreamlike, of a gentle +face, unstained and pale as marble, that bent above his pillow, and, +singing, called him away to forgetfulness and peace. + + +III + +And several hours later, when he woke after a refreshing sleep to find +Mrs. Mawle smiling down upon him over a tray of steaming coffee, he +recalled the events of the night with a sense of vivid reality that if +possible increased his conviction of their truth, but without the +smallest symptom of terror or dismay. For the blessing of the presence +that had soothed him into sleep lay still upon him like a garment to +protect. The test had come and he had not wholly failed. + +With something approaching amusement, he watched the housekeeper pick up +a candlestick from the middle of the floor and put his Jaeger slippers +beneath the chair, having found one by the cupboard and the other over by +the fireplace. + +"Mr. Skale's compliments and Mr. Spinrobin is not to hurry himself," he +heard her saying, as she put the tray beside the bed and went out of the +room. He looked at his watch and saw that it was after ten o'clock. + +Half an hour later he was dressed and on his way downstairs, conscious +only of an overwhelming desire to see Mr. Skale, but to see him in his +normal and fatherly aspect again. For a strain of worship mingled oddly +with his devouring curiosity, and he was thirsty now for the rest of the +adventure, for the complete revelation of the Discovery in all its +bearings. And the moment he saw the clergyman in the hall he ran towards +him, scarcely realizing what it was he meant to say or do. Mr. Skale +stretched out both hands to meet him. His face was alight with pleasure. + +But, before they could meet and touch, a door opened and in slipped +Miriam between them; she, too, was radiant, and her hands outstretched. + +"Me first, please! Me first!" she cried with happy laughter, and before +Spinrobin realized what was happening, she had flung her arms about his +neck and kissed him. "You were splendid!" she whispered in his ear, "and +I _am_ proud of you--ever so proud!" + +The next minute Skale had him by the hands. + +"Well done! well done!" his voice boomed, while he gazed down into his +face with enthusiastic and unqualified approval. "It was all magnificent. +My dear little fellow, you've got the heart of a god, and, by Heavens, +you shall become as a god too! For you are worthy!" He shook him +violently by both hands, while Miriam looked eagerly on with admiration +in her wide grey eyes. + +"I'm so glad, so awfully glad--" stammered the secretary, remembering +with shame his moments of vivid terror. He hardly knew what he said at +the moment. + +"The properties of things," thundered the clergyman, "as you have now +learned, are merely the 'muffled utterances of the Sounds that made +them.' The thing itself is its name." + +He spoke rapidly, with intense ardor and with reverence. "You have seen +with your own eyes a scientific proof of my Discovery on its humblest +level--how the physical properties of objects can be manipulated by the +vibratory utterance of their true names--can be extended, reduced, +glorified. Next you shall learn that spiritual qualities--the attributes +of higher states of being--can be similarly dealt with and +harnessed--exalted, intensified, _invoked_--and that the correct +utterance of mighty Names can seduce their specific qualities into your +own soul to make you mighty and eternal as themselves, and that to call +upon the Great Names is no idle phrase.... When the time comes, +Spinrobin, you shall not shrink, you shall not shrink...." He flung his +arms out with a great gesture of delight. + +"No," repeated Spinrobin, yet aware that he felt mentally battered at the +prospect, "I shall not shrink. I think--now--I can manage--anything!" + +And then, watching Miriam with lingering glance as she vanished laughing +up the staircase, he followed Mr. Skale into the library, his thoughts +tearing wildly to and fro, swelling with delight and pride, thrilling +with the wonder of what was yet to come. There, with fewest possible +sentences, the clergyman announced that he now accepted him and would, +therefore, carry out the promise with regard to the bequeathal of his +property to him in the event of any untoward circumstances arising later. +He also handed to him in cash the salary for the "trial month," together +with a check for the first quarter in advance. He was beaming with the +satisfaction he felt at having found at last a really qualified helper. +Spinrobin looked into his face as they shook hands over the bargain. He +was thinking of other aspects he had seen of this amazing being but a few +hours before--the minute, the colossal, the changing-between-the-two +Skales.... + +"I'm game, Mr. Skale," he said simply, forgetting all his recent doubts +and terrors. + +"I know you are," the clergyman replied. "I knew it all along." + + + + +Chapter X + + +I + +The first thing Spinrobin knew when he ran upstairs to lock away the +money in his desk was that his whole being, without his directing it, +asked a question of momentous import. He did not himself ask it +deliberately. He surprised his sub-consciousness asking it: + +"WHAT IS THIS NAME THAT PHILIP SKALE FOREVER SEEKS?" + +It was no longer mere curiosity that asked it, but that sense of +responsibility which in all men of principle and character lies at the +root of action and of life. And Spinrobin, for all his little weaknesses, +was a man of character and principle. There came a point when he could no +longer follow blindly where others led, even though the leader were so +grand an individual as Philip Skale. This point is reached at varying +degrees of the moral thermometer, and but for the love that Miriam had +wakened in his heart, it might have taken much longer to send the mercury +of his will so high in so short a time. He now felt responsibility for +two, and in the depths of his queer, confused, little mind stirred the +thought that possibly after all the great adventure he sought was only +the supreme adventure of a very wonderful Love. + +He records these two questions at this point, and it is only just to +himself, therefore, to set them down here. To neither was the answer yet +forthcoming. + +For some days the routine of this singular household followed its normal +course, the only change being that while the secretary practiced his +Hebrew names and studied the relations between sound, color, form and the +rest, he kept himself a little better in hand, for Love is a mighty +humanizer and holds down the nose upon the grindstone of the wholesome +and practical values of existence. He turned, so to speak, and tried to +face the matter squarely; to see the adventure as a whole; to get all +round it and judge. It seems, however, that he was too much in the thick +of it to get that bird's-eye view which reduces details to the right +proportion. Skale's personality was too close, and flooded him too +violently. Spinrobin remained confused and bewildered; but also +unbelievably happy. + +"Coming out all right," he wrote shakily in that gilt-edged diary. +"Beginning to understand why I'm in the world. Am just as important as +anybody else--_really_. Impossible explain more." His entries were +very like telegrams, in which a man attempts to express in a lucid +shorthand all manner of things that the actual words hardly compass. +And life itself is not unlike some mighty telegram that seeks vainly +to express, between the extremes of silence and excess, all that the +soul would say.... + +"Skale is going too far," perhaps best expresses the daily burden of his +accumulating apprehension. "He is leading up to something that makes me +shrink--something not quite legitimate. Playing with an Olympian fire +that may consume us both." And there his telegram stopped; for how in +the world could he put into mere language the pain and distress involved +in the thought that it might at the same time consume Miriam? It all +touched appalling depths of awe in his soul. It made his heart shake. The +girl had become a part of his very self. + +Vivid reactions he suffered, alternating with equally vivid enthusiasms. +He realized how visionary the clergyman's poetical talk was, but the next +minute the practical results staggered him again, as it were, back into a +state of conviction. For the poetry obscured his judgment and fired his +imagination so that he could not follow calmly. The feeling that it was +not only illogical but insane troubled him; yet the physical effects +stared him in the face, and to argue with physical results is waste of +time. One must act. + +Yet how "act?" The only way that offered he accepted: he fell back upon +the habits of his boyhood, read his Bible, and at night dropped humbly +upon his knees and prayed. + +"Keep me straight and pure and simple, and bless ... Miriam. Grant +that I may love and strengthen her ... and that my love may bring her +peace ... and joy ...and guide me through all this terror, I beseech +Thee, into Truth...." + +For, in the beauty of his selfless love, he dared not even admit that it +was love; feeling only the highest, he could not quite correlate his +sweet and elevated passion with the common standards of what the World +called love. The humility of a great love is ever amazing. + +And then followed in his prayers the more cowardly cry for ordinary +protection from the possible results of Skale's audacity. The Love of God +he could understand, but the Wrath of God was a conception he was still +unemancipated enough to dread; and a dark, portentous terror that Skale +might incur it, and that he might be dragged at its heels into some +hideous catastrophe, chased him through the days and nights. It all +seemed so unlawful, impious, blasphemous.... + +"... And preserve us from vain presumptions of the heart and brain, I +pray Thee, lest we be consumed.... Please, O God, forgive the insolence +of our wills ... and the ignorant daring of our spirit.... Permit +not the innocent to suffer for the guilty ... and especially +bless ... Miriam...." + +Yet through it all ran that exquisite memory of the calling of his true +name in the spaces of his soul. The beauty of far-off unattainable +things hovered like a star above his head, so that he went about the +house with an insatiable yearning in his heart, a perpetual smile of +wonder upon his face, and in his eyes a gleam that was sometimes terror, +sometimes delight. + +It was almost as if some great voice called to him from the mountaintops, +and the little chap was forever answering in his heart, "I'm coming! I'm +coming!" and then losing his way purposely, or hiding behind bushes on +the way for fear of meeting the great invisible Caller face to face. + + +II + +And, meanwhile, the house became for him a kind of Sound-Temple as it +were, protected from desecration by the hills and desolate spaces that +surrounded it. From dawn to darkness its halls and corridors echoed with +the singing violin, Skale's booming voice, Miriam's gentle tones, and his +own plaintive yet excited note, while outside the old grey walls the air +was ever alive with the sighing of the winds and the ceaseless murmur of +falling water. Even at night the place was not silent. He understood at +last what the clergyman had told him--that perfect silence does not +exist. The universe, down to its smallest detail, sings through every +second of time. + +The sounds of nature especially haunted him. He never heard the wind now +without thinking of lost whispers from the voice of God that had strayed +down upon the world to sweeten and bewilder the hearts of men--whispers +a-search for listeners simple enough to understand. And when their walks +took them as far as the sea, the dirge of the waves troubled his soul +with a kind of distressing exaltation that afflicted the very deeps of +his being. It was with a new comprehension he understood his employer's +dictum that the keynote of external nature was middle F--this employer +who himself possessed that psychic sense of absolute pitch--and that the +roar of a city, wind in forest trees, the cry of trains, the rushing of +rivers and falling water, Niagara itself, all produced this single +utterance; and he loved to sing it on the moors, Miriam laughing by his +side, and to realize that the world, literally, sang with them. + +Behind all sounds he divined for the first time a majesty that appalled; +his imagination, glorified by Skale, instantly fell to constructing the +forms they bodied forth. Out of doors the flutes of Pan cried to him to +dance: indoors the echoes of yet greater music whispered in the +penetralia of his spirit that he should cry. In this extraordinary new +world of Philip Skale's revelation he fairly spun. + +It was one thing when the protective presence of the clergyman was about +him, or when he was sustained by the excitement of enthusiasm, but when +he was alone, at his normal level, timid, yet adventurous, the too vivid +sense of these new things made him tremble. The terrifying beauty of +Skale's ideas; the realization in cold blood that all forms in the world +about him were silently a-singing, and might any moment vanish and +release their huge bodies into primal sounds; that the stones in the +road, the peaked hills, the very earth herself might alter in shape +before his eyes: on the other hand, that the viewless forces of life and +death might leap into visibility and form with the calling of their +names; that himself, and Skale, and Mrs. Mawle, and that pale fairy +girl-figure were all enmeshed in the same scheme with plants, insects, +animals and planets; and that God's voice was everywhere too sublimely +close--all this, when he was alone, oppressed him with a sense of things +that were too intimate and too mighty for daily life. + +In these moments--so frequent now as to be almost continuous--he +preferred the safety of his ordinary and normal existence, dull though it +might be; the limited personality he had been so anxious to escape from +seemed wondrous sweet and comforting. The Terror of the approaching +Experiment with this mighty name appalled him. + +The forces, thus battling within his soul, became more and more +contradictory and confused. The outcome for himself seemed to be the +result of the least little pressure this way or that--possibly at the +very last moment, too. Which way the waiting Climax might draw him was a +question impossible to decide. + + +III + +And then, suddenly, the whole portentous business moved a sharp stage +nearer that hidden climax, when one afternoon Mr. Skale came up +unexpectedly behind him and laid a great hand upon his shoulder in a way +that made him positively jump. + +"Spinrobin," he said, in those masterful, resonant tones that shamed his +timidity and cowardice, "are you ready?" + +"For anything and everything," was the immediate reply, given almost +automatically as he felt the clergyman's forces flood into his soul +and lift him. + +"The time is at hand, then," continued the other, leading his companion +by the arm to a deep leather sofa, "for you to know certain things that +for your own safety and ours, I was obliged to keep hidden till +now--first among which is the fact that this house is not, as you +supposed, empty." + +Prepared as he was for some surprising announcement, Spinrobin +nevertheless started. It was so abrupt. + +"Not empty!" he repeated, eager to hear more, yet quaking. He had never +forgotten the nightly sounds and steps in his own passage. + +"The rooms beyond your own," said Skale, with a solemnity that amounted +to reverence, "are occupied--" + +"By--" gasped the secretary. + +"Captured Sounds--gigantic," was the reply, uttered almost below +the breath. + +The two men looked steadily at one another for the space of several +seconds, Spinrobin charged to the brim with anxious questions pressing +somehow upon the fringe of life and death, Skale obviously calculating +how much he might reveal or how little. + +"Mr. Spinrobin," he said presently, holding him firmly with his eyes, +"you are aware by this time that what I seek is the correct pronunciation +of certain names--of a certain name, let us say, and that so complex is +the nature of this name that no single voice can utter it. I need a +chord, a human chord of four voices." + +Spinrobin bowed. + +"After years of research and experiment," resumed the clergyman, "I have +found the first three notes, and now, in your own person, has come my +supreme happiness in the discovery of the fourth. What I now wish you to +know, though I cannot expect you to understand it all at first, is that +the name I seek is broken up into four great divisions of sound, and that +to each of these separate divisions the four notes of our chord form +introductory channels. When the time comes to utter it, each one of us +will call the syllable or sound that awakens the mighty response in one +of these immense and terrific divisions, so that the whole name will +vibrate as a single chord sung perfectly in tune." + +Mr. Skale paused and drew deep breaths. This approach to his great +experiment, even in speech, seemed to exhaust him so that he was obliged +to call upon reserves of force that lay beneath. His whole manner +betrayed the gravity, the reverence, the mingled respect and excitement +of--death. + +And the simple truth is that at the moment Spinrobin could not find in +himself sufficient courage to ask what this fearful and prodigious name +might be. Even to put ordinary questions about the four rooms was a +little beyond him, for his heart beat like a hammer against his ribs, and +he heard its ominous drum sounding through both his temples. + +"And in each of the rooms in your corridor, ready to leap forth when +called, lie the sounds or voices I have captured and imprisoned, these +separate chambers being sheeted and prepared--huge wax receptacles, in +fact, akin to the cylinders of the phonograph. Together with the form or +pattern belonging to them, and the color, there they lie at present in +silence and invisibility, just as the universe lay in silence and +invisibility before the word of God called it into objective being. +But--_know them and they are mine_." + +"All these weeks--so close to me," whispered Spinrobin, too low for Skale +to notice. + +Then the clergyman leaned over towards him. "These captured sounds are +as yet by no means complete," he said through his beard, as though afraid +to admit it; "for all I have of them really is their initial letters, of +their forms the merest faint outlines, and of their colors but a first +suggestion. And we must be careful, we must be absolutely wise. To utter +them correctly will mean to transfer to us the qualities of Gods, whereas +to utter falsely may mean to release upon the surface of the world forces +that--" He shrugged his great shoulders and an ashen pallor spread +downwards over the face to the very lips. The sentence remained +unfinished; and its very incompleteness left Spinrobin with the most +grievous agony of apprehension he had yet experienced. + +"So that, if you are ready, our next step shall be to show you the room +in which your own particular sound lies," added Mr. Skale after a long +pause; "the sound in the chord it will be your privilege to utter when +the time comes. For each of us will utter his or her particular letter, +the four together making up the first syllable in the name I seek." + +Mr. Skale looked steadily down into the wide blue eyes of his companion, +and for some minutes neither of them spoke. + +"The letter I am to utter," repeated the secretary at length; "the letter +in some great name?" + +Mr. Skale smiled upon him with the mighty triumph of the Promethean idea +in his eyes. + +"The room," he muttered deeply and softly, "in which it lies waiting for +you to claim it at the appointed time ... the room where you shall learn +its color, become attuned to its great vibratory activity, see its form, +and _know_ its power in your own person." + +Again they looked long into one another's eyes. + +"I'm game," murmured Spinrobin almost inaudibly; "I'm game, Mr. Skale." +But, as he said it, something in his round head turned dizzy, while his +thoughts flew to Miriam and to the clergyman's significant phrase of a +few minutes ago--"we must be careful, we must be absolutely wise." + + +IV + +And the preparation the clergyman insisted upon--detailed, thorough +and scrupulous--certainly did not lessen in Spinrobin's eyes the +gravity of the approaching ordeal. They spent two days and nights in +the very precise and punctilious study, and utterance, of the Hebrew +names of the "angels"--that is, forces--whose qualities were essential +to their safety. + +Also, at the same time, they fasted. + +But when the time came for the formal visit to those closed rooms, of +which the locked doors were like veils in a temple, Spinrobin declares it +made him think of some solemn procession down ancient passageways of +crypt or pyramid to the hidden places where inscrutable secrets lay. It +was certainly thrilling and impressive. Skale went first, moving slowly +with big strides, grave as death, and so profoundly convinced of the +momentous nature of their errand that an air of dignity, and of dark +adventure almost majestic, hung about his figure. The long corridor, that +dreary December morning, stretched into a world of shadows, and about +half-way down it he halted in front of a door next but one to Spinrobin's +room and turned towards his companion. + +Spinrobin, in a mood to see anything, yet striving to hide behind one +of those "bushes," as it were, kept his distance a little, but Mr. +Skale took him by the arm and drew him forward to his side. Slowly he +stooped, till the great bearded lips were level with his ear, and +whispered solemnly: + +"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see--and _hear_ God." + +Then he turned the key and led the way inside. + +But apparently there were double doors, for they found themselves at +first in a cupboard-like space that formed a tiny vestibule to the room +itself; and here there was light enough to see that the clergyman was +taking from nails on the wall two long garments like surplices, colored, +so far as Spinrobin could make out, a deep red and a deep violet. + +"For our protection," whispered Skale, enveloping himself in the red one, +while he handed the other to his companion and helped him into it. "Wear +it closely about your body until we come out." And while the secretary +struggled among the folds of this cassock-like garment, that was several +feet too long for his diminutive stature, the clergyman added, still with +a gravity and earnestness that impressed the imagination beyond all reach +of the ludicrous: + +"For sound and color are intimately associated, and there are +combinations of the two that can throw the spiritual body into a +condition of safe receptivity, without which we should be deaf and blind +even in the great Presences themselves." + +Trivial details, presenting themselves in really dramatic moments, may +impress the mind with extraordinary aptness. At this very moment +Spinrobin's eyes noticed in the corner of wall and door a tiny spider's +web, with the spider itself hanging in the center of its little +net--shaking. And he has never forgotten it. It expressed pictorially +exactly what he felt himself. He, too, felt that he was shaking in +midair--as in the center of a web whose strands hung suspended from the +very stars. + +And the words, spoken in that slow deep whisper, filled the little space +in which the two men stood, and somehow completed for Spinrobin the sense +of stupendous things adequately approached. + +Then Mr. Skale closed the outer door, shutting out the last feeble +glimmer of day, at the same moment turning the handle of the portal +beyond. And as they entered the darkness, Spinrobin, holding up his +violet robe with one hand to prevent tripping, with the other caught hold +of the tail of the flowing garment in front of him. For a second or two +he stopped breathing altogether. + + +V + +On the very threshold a soft murmur of beauty met them; and, as plainly +as though the darkness had lifted into a blaze of light, the secretary at +once realized that he stood in the presence of something greater than all +he had hitherto known in this world. He had managed to find the +clergyman's big hand, and he held it tightly through a twisted corner of +his voluminous robe. The inner door next closed behind them. Skale, he +was aware, had again stooped in the darkness to the level of his ear. + +"I'll give you the sound--the note," he heard him whisper. "Utter it +inwardly--in your thoughts only. Its vibrations correspond to the color, +and will protect us." + +"Protect us?" gasped Spinrobin with dry lips. + +"From being shattered and destroyed--owing to the intense activity of the +vibrations conveyed to our ultimate physical atoms," was the whispered +reply, as the clergyman proceeded to give him under his breath a +one-syllable sound that was unlike any word he knew, and that for the +life of him he has never been able to reproduce since. + +Mr. Skale straightened himself up again and Spinrobin pictured him +standing there twice his natural size, a huge and impressive figure as he +had once before seen him, clothed now with the double dignity of his +strange knowledge. Then, advancing slowly to the center of the room, they +stood still, each uttering silently in his thoughts the syllable that +attuned their inner beings to safety. + +Almost immediately, as the seconds passed, the secretary became aware +that the room was beginning to shake with a powerful but regular +movement. All about him had become alive. Vitality, like the vitality +of youth upon mountain tops, pulsed and whirled about them, pouring +into them the currents of a rushing glorious life, undiluted, straight +from the source. In his little person he felt both the keenness of +sharp steel and the vast momentum of a whole ocean. Thus he describes +it. And the more clearly he uttered in his thoughts the sound given to +him by his leader, the greater seemed the influx of strength and glory +into his heart. + +The darkness, meanwhile, began to lift. It moved upwards in spirals that, +as they rose, hummed and sang. A soft blaze of violet like the color of +the robe he wore became faintly visible in the air. The chamber, he +perceived, was about the same size as his own bedroom, and empty of all +furniture, while walls, floor, and ceiling were draped in the same shade +of violet that covered his shoulders; and the sound he uttered, _and +thought_, called forth the color and made it swim into visibility. The +walls and ceiling sheeted with wax opened, so to speak, their giant lips. + +Mr. Skale made a movement and drew him closer. He raised one arm into the +air, and Spinrobin, following the motion, saw what at first he imagined +to be vast round faces glimmering overhead, outlined darkly against the +violet atmosphere. Mr. Skale, with what seemed a horrible audacity, was +reaching up to touch them, and as he did so there issued a low, soft, +metallic sound, humming and melodious, that dropped sweetly about his +ears. Then the secretary saw that they were discs of metal--immense gongs +swinging in midair, suspended in some way from the ceiling, and each one +as Skale touched it emitted its beautiful note till all combined together +at length into a single chord. + +And this chord, though Spinrobin talks whole pages in describing it, +apparently brought in its train the swell and thunder of something +beyond,--the far sweetness of exquisite harmonics, thousands upon +thousands, inwoven with the strands of deeper notes that boomed with +colossal vibrations about them. And, in some fashion that musical people +will understand, its gentler notes caught up the sound that Spinrobin was +uttering in his mind, and took possession of it. They merged. An +extraordinary volume, suggesting a huge aggregation of sound behind +it--in the same way that a murmur of wind may suggest the roar of +tempests--rose and fell through the room, lifted them up, bore them away, +sang majestically over their heads, under their feet, and through their +very minds. The vibrations of their own physical atoms fell into pace +with these other spiritual activities by a kind of sympathetic resonance. + +The combination of power and simplicity was what impressed him most, it +seems, for it resembled--resembled only--the great spiritual simplicity +in Beethoven that rouses and at the same time satisfies the profoundest +yearnings of the soul. It swept him into utter bliss, into something for +once complete. And Spinrobin, at the center of his glorified yet quaking +little heart, understood vaguely that the sound he uttered, and the sound +he heard, were directly connected with the presence of some august and +awful Name.... + + +VI + +Suddenly Mr. Skale, he was aware, became rigid beside him. Spinrobin +pressed closer, seeking the protective warmth of his body, and realizing +from the gesture that something new was about to happen. And something +did happen, though not precisely in the sense that things happen in the +streets and in the markets of men. In the sphere of his mind, perhaps, it +happened, but was none the less real for that. + +For the Presence he had been aware of in the room from the moment of +entrance became then suddenly almost concrete. It came closer--sheeted in +wonder inscrutable. The form and body of the sounds that filled the air +pressed forward into partial visibility. Spinrobin's powers of interior +sight, he dimly realized, increased at the same time. Vast as a mountain, +as a whole range of mountains; beautiful as a star, as a whole heaven of +stars; yet simple as a flower of the field; and singing this little song +of pure glory and joy that he felt was the inmost message of the +chord--this Presence in the room sought to push forward into objective +reality. And behind it, he knew, lay the stupendous urgency and drive of +some power that held the entire universe in its pulses as easily as the +ocean holds a shoal of minnows.... + +But the limits of realization for him were almost reached. Spinrobin +wanted to close his eyes, yet could not. He was driven along with the +wave of sound thus awakened and forced to see what was to be seen. This +time there was no bush behind which he could screen himself. And there, +dimly sketched out of the rhythmical vibrations of the seething violet +obscurity, rose that looming Outline of wonder and majesty that clothed +itself about them with a garment as of visible sound. The Unknown, +suggesting incredible dimensions, stood at his elbow, tremendously draped +in these dim, voluminous folds of music and color--very fearful, very +seductive, yet so supremely simple at the same time that a little child +could have understood without fear. + +But only partially there, only partially revealed. The ineffable glory +was never quite told. Spinrobin, amid all the torrent of words in which +he sought later to describe the experience, could only falter out a +single comprehensible sentence: "I felt like stammering in intoxication +over the first letter of a name I loved--loved to the point of +ecstasy--to the point even of giving up my life for it." + +And meanwhile, breathless and shaking, he clung to Skale, still murmuring +in his heart the magic syllable, but swept into some region of glory +where pain and joy both ceased, where terror and delight merged into some +perfectly simple form of love, and where he became in an instant of time +an entirely new and emancipated Spinrobin, driving at full speed towards +the ultimate sound and secret of the universe--God. + + * * * * * + +He never remembered exactly how he got out of the room, but it always +seemed as though he dropped with a crash from some enormous height. The +sounds ceased; the gongs died into silence; the violet faded; the +quivering wax lay still.... Mr. Skale was moving beside him, and the next +minute they were in the narrow vestibule between the doors, hanging up +ordinary colored surplices upon ordinary iron nails. + +Spinrobin stumbled. Skale caught him. They were in the corridor +again--cold, cheerless, full of December murk and shadows--and the +secretary was leaning against the clergyman's shoulder breathless and +trembling as though he had run a mile. + + + + +Chapter XI + + +I + +"And the color of _my_ sound is a pale green," he heard behind him in +tones as sweet as a muted violin string, "while the form of my note fits +into yours just like a glove. Dear Spinny, don't tremble so. We shall +always be together, remember, you and I...." + +And when, turning, he saw Miriam at his side, radiant with her shining +little smile of welcome, the relief was so great that he took her in his +arms and would not let her go. She drew him tenderly away downstairs, for +the clergyman, it seemed, was still busy with something in the room, and +had left them.... + +"_I_ know, _I_ know," she said softly, making him sit down beside her on +the sofa, "I know the rush of pain and happiness it brings. It shifts the +whole key of your life, doesn't it? When I first went into my 'room' and +learned the letter I was to utter in the Name, I felt as if I could never +come back to ordinary things again, or--" + +"What name?" interrupted Spinrobin, drawing sharply away from her, and +the same second amazed at the recklessness that had prompted the one +question he dreaded. + +The inevitable reaction had come. He realized for the first time that +there _was_ an alternative. All the passion of battle was upon him. The +terrific splendors of Skale's possible achievement dazzled the very +windows of his soul, but at the same time the sweet uses of normal human +life called searchingly to him from within. He had been circling about +this fight for days; at last it was unexpectedly upon him. He might climb +to Skale's impossible Heaven, Skale's outrageous Heaven ... on the wings +of this portentous experience, or--he might sink back into the stream of +wholesome and commonplace life, with a delicious little human love to +companion him across the years, the unsoiled love of an embryonic soul +that he could train practically from birth. Miriam was beside him, soft +and yielding, ready, doubtless, to be molded for either path. + +"What name?" he repeated, holding his breath once the words were out. + +"_The_ name, of course," she answered gently, smiling up into his +eyes. "The name I have lived to know and that you came here to learn, +so that when our voices sing and utter it together in the chord we +shall both become--" + +Spinrobin set his mouth against her own to stop her speech. She yielded +to him with her whole little body. Her eyes smiled the great human +welcome as she stared so closely into his. + +"Shall become--what we are not now," he cried fiercely, drawing his face +back, but holding her body yet more closely to him. "Lose each other, +don't you see? Don't you realize that?" + +"No, no," she said faintly, "find each other--you mean--" + +"Yes--if all goes well!" He spoke the words very low. For perhaps thirty +seconds they stared most searchingly into each other's eyes, drawing +slightly apart. Very slowly her face, then, went exceedingly pale. + +"_If--all goes well_" she repeated, horrified. Then, after a pause, she +added: "You mean--that he might make a mistake--or--?" + +And Spinrobin, drinking in the sweet breath that bore the words +so softly from her lips, answered, measuring his words with ponderous +gravity as though each conveyed a sentence of life or death, +"_If--all--goes--well_." + +She watched him with something of that utter clinging mother-love in her +eyes that claims any degree of suffering gladly rather than the loss of +her own--passionately welcoming misery in preference to loss. She, too, +had divined the alternative. + +Then, kissing his cheeks and eyes and lips, she untied his arms from +about her neck and ran, blushing furiously, from the room. And with her +went doubt, for the first time--doubt as to the success of the great +experiment--doubt as to their Leader's power. + + +II + +And while Spinrobin still sat there, trembling with the two passions that +tore his soul in twain--the passion to climb forbidden skies with Skale, +and the passion to know sweet human love with Miriam--there came +thundering into the room no less a personage than the giant clergyman, +straight from those haunted rooms. Pallor hung about his face, but there +was a light radiating through it--a high, luminous whiteness--that made +the secretary think of his childhood's pictures of the Hebrew prophet +descending from Mount Sinai, the glory of internal spheres still +reflected upon the skin and eyes. Skale, like a flame and a wind, came +pouring into the room. The thing he had remained upstairs to complete +had clearly proved successful. The experiment had moved another +stage--almost the final one--nearer accomplishment. + +The reaction was genuinely terrific. Spinrobin felt himself swept away +beyond all power of redemption. Miriam and the delicious human life faded +into insignificance again. What, in the name of the eternal fires, were a +girl's lips and love compared to the possibilities of Olympian +achievement promised by Skale's golden audacities? Earth faded before the +lights of heaven. The whole tide of human emotion was nothing compared to +a drop of this terrible salt brine from seas in unknown stars.... As +usual Skale's personality caught him up into some seventh heaven of the +soaring imagination. + +"Spinrobin, my glorious companion in adventure," thundered the clergyman, +"your note suits perfectly the chord! I am delighted beyond all words. +You chime with amazing precision and accuracy into the complex +Master-Tone I need for the proper pronunciation of the Name! Your coming +has been an inspiration permitted of Him who owns it." His excitement was +profoundly moving. The man was in earnest if ever man was. "We shall +succeed!" And he caught him in his arms. "For the Name manifests the +essential attributes of the Being it describes, and in uttering it we +shall know mystical union with it.... We shall be as Gods!" + +"Splendid! Splendid!" exclaimed Spinrobin, utterly carried away by this +spiritual enthusiasm. "I will follow you to the end--" + + +III + +The words were scarcely out of his mouth when framed in the doorway, +delicate and seductive as a witch, again stood Miriam, then moved softly +forward into the room. Her face was pale as the grave. Her little, +delicate mouth was set with resolution. Clearly she had overheard, but +clearly also she had used the interval for serious reflection. + +"We cannot possibly--_fail_, can we?" she asked, gliding up like a +frightened fawn to the clergyman's side. + +He turned upon her, stern, even terrible. So relentless was his swift +appearance, so implacable in purpose, that Spinrobin felt the sudden +impulse to fly to her assistance. But instantly his great visage broke +into a smile like the smile of thunderous clouds when unexpectedly the +sun breaks through, then quickly hides itself again. + +"Everywhere," he roared, "true things are great and clean.... Have +faith... have faith...." And he looked upon them both as though his eyes +would sweep from their petty souls all vestige of what was afraid and +immature. "We all are--pure ... we all are true ... each calls his note +in singleness of heart ... we cannot fail!" + +And just here Spinrobin, a little beyond himself with excitement +probably, pattered across the room to his giant leader's side and peered +up into his visage. He stood on tiptoe, craning his neck forwards, then +spoke very low: + +"I have the right, _we_ have the right--for I have earned it--to be taken +now fully into confidence, and to know everything--_everything_," came +the words; and the reply, simple and immediate, that dropped back upon +him through all that tangle of ragged beard was brief and to the point: + +"You have. Listen, then--" And he led them both by the hand like two +children towards the sofa, and then, standing over them, began to speak. + + +IV + +"I seek," he said slowly and gravely, "the correct utterance of a certain +mighty and ineffable name, and in each of those four rooms lies a letter +of its first syllable. For all these years of research"--his voice +dropped suddenly--"have only brought me to that--the first syllable. And +the name itself is composed of four, each more mighty than the last." + +A violent trembling ran over both listeners. Spinrobin, holding a cold +little hand in his, dreaded unuttered sentences. For if mere letters +could spell so vast a message, what must be the meaning of a whole +syllable, and what the dire content of the completed name itself! + +"Yes," Skale went on with a reverence born of profoundest awe, "the +captured sounds I hold are but the opening vibrations of this tremendous +name, and the task is of such magnitude that absolute courage and +absolute faith are essential. For the sounds are themselves creative +sounds, and the consequences in case of faulty utterance might be too +appalling to contemplate--" + +"Creative!" fell from the little man on the sofa, aghast at the +possibility. Yet the one burning question that lay trembling just behind +his lips dared not frame itself in words, for there was something in Mr. +Skale's face and manner that rendered the asking of it not yet possible. +The revelation of the name must wait. + +"Even singly, as you saw, their power is terrific," he went on, ignoring +the pathetic interruption, "but united--as we shall unite them while each +of us utters his letter and summons forth the entire syllable by means of +the chord--they will constitute a Word of Power which shall make us as +Gods if uttered correctly; if incorrectly, shall pour from this house to +consume and alter the surface of the entire world with the destructive +tempest due to mispronunciation and a lie." + +Miriam nestled closer into her companion's side. There was otherwise no +sign outwardly of the emotions that surged through the two little figures +upon the sofa. + +"And now--now that you have this first syllable complete?" faltered a +high and sharing tenor voice. + +"We must transfer it to a home where it shall wait in silence and in +safety until we have also captured the other remaining three." Skale came +forward and lowered his mouth to his companions' ears. "We shall transfer +it, as you now understand, by chanting the four letters. Our living chord +will summon forth that first syllable into visible form and shape. Our +four voices, thus trained and purified, each singing a mighty letter, +shall create the astounding pattern of the name's first syllable--" + +"But the home," stammered Spinrobin; "this home where it shall await +the rest?" + +"My rooms," was the reply, "can contain letters only, for a whole +syllable I need a larger space. In the crypt-like cellars beneath this +house I have the necessary space all ready and prepared to hold this +first syllable while we work upon the second. Come, and you shall see!" + +They crossed the hall and went down the long stone passage beyond the +dining room till they reached a swinging baize door, and so came to the +dark stairs that plunged below ground. Skale strode first, Spinrobin +following with beating heart; he held Miriam by the hand; his steps, +though firm enough, made him think of his efforts as a boy when treading +water for solid ground out of his depth. + + +V + +Cold air met them, yet it was neither dank nor unpleasant as air usually +is that has never tasted sunlight. There was a touch of vitality about it +wholly remarkable. Miriam pressed closer. Every detail, every little +incident that brought them nearer to the climax was now interpreted by +these two loving children as something that might eventually spell for +them separation. Yet neither referred to it directly. The pain of the +ultimate choice possessed them deep within. + +"Here," exclaimed the clergyman in a hushed tone that yet woke echoes on +all sides, while he lit a candle and held it aloft, "you see the cellar +vaults all ready for the first great syllable when our chord shall bring +it leaping down from the rooms upstairs. Here will reside the pattern of +the name's opening syllable till we shall have accomplished the +construction of the others." + +And like some august master of forbidden ceremonies, looking twice his +natural size as the shadows played tricks with his arms and shoulders, +merging his outline into walls and ceiling, Skale stood and looked +about him. + +Spaces stretched away on all sides as in the crypt of a cathedral, most +beautifully and harmoniously draped with the separate colors of the four +rooms, red, yellow, violet and green; immense gongs, connected apparently +with some intricate network of shining wires, hung suspended in midair +beneath the arches; rising from the floor were gigantic tuning forks, +erect and silent, immediately behind which gaped artificial air-cavities +placed to increase the intensity of the respective notes when caught; and +in the dim background the clergyman pointed out an elaborate apparatus +for quickly altering the temperature of the air, and another for the +rapid production of carbonic acid gas, since by means of a lens of +carbonic acid gas sound can be refracted like light, and by changing the +temperature of the air that conveys it, sound can be bent, also like a +ray of light, in any desired direction. The whole cellar seemed in some +way to sum up and synthesize the distinctive characteristics of the four +rooms. Over it all, sheeting ceiling and walls, lay the living and +receptive wax. Singularly suggestive, too, was the appearance of those +huge metal discs, like lifeless, dark faces waiting the signal to open +their bronze lips and cry aloud, ready for the advent of the Sound that +should give them birth and force them to proclaim their mighty secret. +Spinrobin stared, silent and fascinated, almost expecting them to begin +there and then their dreadful and appalling music. + +Yet the place was undeniably empty; no ghost of a sound stirred the +gorgeous draperies; nothing but a faint metallic whispering seemed to +breathe out from the big discs and forks and wires as Skale's voice, +modulated and hushed though it was, vibrated gently against them. Nothing +moved, nothing uttered, nothing lived--as yet. + +"Destitute of all presence, you see it now," whispered the clergyman, +shading the candle with one huge hand; "though before long, when we +transfer our great captured syllable down here, you shall know it alive +and singing with a thousand thunders. The Letters shall not escape me. +The gongs and colors correspond exactly. They will retain both the sounds +and the outlines ... and the wax is sensitive as the heart of a child." +And his big face shone quite dreadfully as the whole pomp and splendor of +his dream come true set fire to his thoughts. + +But Spinrobin was glad when at length they turned and moved slowly again +up the stone steps and emerged into the pale December daylight. That +dark cellar, wired, draped, waxed and be-gonged, awaiting its mighty +occupant, filled his mind with too vast a sensation of wonder and +anticipation for peace. + +"And for the syllables to follow," Skale resumed when they were once more +in the library, "we shall want spaces larger still. There are great holes +in these hills"--stretching out an arm to indicate the mountains above +the house--"and down yonder in the heart of those cliffs by the sounding +sea there are caverns. They are far, but the distance is of no +consequence. They will serve us well. I know them. I have marked them. +They are ready." + +He swept his beard to and fro with one hand. Spinrobin already saw those +holes and caverns in the terms of sound and color. + +"And--for the entire name--when completed?" he asked, knowing that the +question was but a feeble substitute for that other one he burned to ask, +yet dared not allow his lips to utter. Skale turned and looked at him. He +raised his hands aloft. His voice boomed again as of old. + +"The open sky!" he cried with enthusiasm; "the vault of heaven itself! +For no solid structure exists in the world, not even the ribs of these +old hills, that could withstand the power of that--of that eternal and +terrific--" + +Spinrobin leapt to his feet. The question swept from his lips at last +like a flame. Miriam clung to his arm, trying in vain to stop him. + +"Then tell me," he cried aloud, "tell me, you great blasphemer, whose is +the Name that you seek to utter under heaven ... and tell me why it is my +soul faints and is so fearfully afraid?" + +Mr. Skale looked at him for a moment as a man might look at some trifling +phenomenon of life that puzzled yet interested him. But there was love in +his eyes--love, and the forgiveness of a great soul. Spinrobin, afraid at +his own audacity, met his eyes recklessly, while Miriam peered from one +to the other, perplexed and questioning. + +"Spinrobin," said the clergyman at length, in a voice turned soft and +tender with compassion, "the name I seek--this awful name we may all +eventually utter together, completely formed--is one that no living man +has spoken for nigh two thousand years, though all this time the search +has been kept alive by a few men in every age and every country of the +world. Some few, they say--ah, yes, '_they say_'--have found it, then +instantly forgotten it again; for once pronounced it may not be retained, +but goes utterly lost to the memory on the instant. Only once, so far as +we may know"--he lowered his voice to a hushed and reverent whisper that +thrilled about them in the air like the throbbing of a string--"has it +been preserved: the Prophet of Nazareth, purer and simpler than all other +men, recovered the correct utterance of the first two syllables, and +swiftly--very swiftly--phonetically, too, of necessity,--wrote them down +before the wondrous memory had time to fade; then sewed the piece of +parchment into his thigh, and hence 'had Power' all his life. + +"It is a name," he continued, his tone rising to something of its old +thunder, "that sounds like the voice of many waters, that piles the ocean +into standing heaps and makes the high hills to skip like little lambs. +It is a name the ancient Hebrews concealed, as Tetragrammaton, beneath a +thousand devices, the name, they said, that 'rusheth through the +universe,' to call upon which--that is, to utter correctly--is to call +upon that name which is far above all others that can be named--" + +He paused midway in the growing torrent of his speech and lifted his +companion out of the sofa. He set him upon his feet, holding both his +hands and peering deep into his eyes--those bewildered yet unflinching +blue eyes of the little man who sought terrific adventure as an escape +from insignificance-- + +"--to know which," he added, in a sudden awed whisper, "is to know the +ultimate secrets of life and death, and to read the riddle of the world +and the soul--to become even as itself--Gods." + +He stopped abruptly, and again that awful, flaming smile ran over his +face, flushing it from chin to forehead with the power of his burning and +tremendous belief. + +Spinrobin was already weeping inwardly, without sound. He understood at +last, only too well, what was coming. Skale's expression held the whole +wild glory, and the whole impious audacity of what seemed his blasphemous +spiritual discovery. The fires were alight in his eyes. He stooped down +lower and opened wide his capacious arms. The next second, Spinrobin, +Miriam, and Mrs. Mawle, who had unexpectedly come upon them from behind, +were gathered all together against his breast. His voice then dropped +suddenly to a tiny whisper of awful joy that seemed to creep from his +lips like some message too mighty to be fully known, and half lost itself +among the strands of his beard. + +"My wonderful redeemed children, notes in my human chord," he whispered +over their heads, "it is the Name that shall make us as God, for it is +none other than the Name that rusheth through the universe"--his breath +failed him most curiously for an instant--"the NAME OF THE ALMIGHTY!" + + + + +Chapter XII + + +I + +A certain struggling incoherence is manifest in Spinrobin's report of it +all, as of a man striving to express violent thoughts in a language he +has not yet mastered. It is evident, for instance, as those few familiar +with the "magical" use of sound in ceremonial and the power that resides +in "true naming" will realize, that he never fully understood Skale's +intended use of the chord, or why this complex sound was necessary for +the utterance of the complex "Name." + +Moreover, the powers concealed in the mere letters, while they laid hold +upon his imagination, never fully entered his understanding. Few minds, +it seems, can conceive of any deity as other than some anthropomorphic +extension of themselves, for the idea is too greatly blinding to admit +human thought within a measurable distance even of a faintest conception. +The true, stupendous nature of the forces these letters in the opening +syllable clothed, Spinrobin unquestionably never apprehended. Miriam, +with her naked and undefiled intuitions, due to utter ignorance of +worldly things from birth, came nearer to the reality; but then Miriam +was now daily more and more caught up into the vortex of a sweet and +compelling human love, and in proportion as this grew she feared the +great experiment that might--so Spinrobin had suggested--spell Loss. +Gradually dread closed the avenues of her spirit that led so fearfully to +Heaven; and in their place she saw the dear yet thorny paths that lay +with Spinny upon the earth. + +They no longer, these two bewildered loving children, spoke of one +another in the far-fetched terminology of sound and music. He no longer +called her his "brilliant little sound," nor did she respond with "you +perfect echo"; they fell back--sign of a gradual concession to more human +things--upon the gentler terminology, if the phrase may be allowed, of +Winky. They shared Winky between them ... though neither one nor other of +them divined yet what Winky actually meant in their just-opening lives. + +"Winky is yours," she would say, "because you made him, but he belongs to +me too, because he simply can't live without me!" + +"Or I without you, Little Magic," he whispered, laughing tenderly. "So, +you see, we are all three together." + +Her face grew slightly troubled. + +"He only pays me visits, though. Sometimes I think you hide him, or tell +him not to come." And far down in her deep grey eyes swam the first +moisture of rising tears. "Don't you, my wonderful Spinny?" + +"Sometimes I forget him, perhaps," he replied gravely, "but that is only +when I think of what may be coming if--the experiment succeeds--" + +"Succeeds?" she exclaimed. "You mean if it fails!" Her voice dropped +instinctively, and they looked over their shoulders to make sure they +were alone. + +He came up very close to her and spoke in her small pink ear. "If it +succeeds," he whispered, "we go to Heaven, I suppose; if it fails we +stay upon the earth." Then he stood off, holding her hands at arm's +length and gazing down upon her. "Do you want to go to Heaven?" he asked +very deliberately, "or to stay here upon the earth with me and Winky--?" + +She was in his arms the same second, laughing and crying with the strange +conflict of new and inexplicable emotions. + +"I want to be with you here, and forever. Heaven frightens me now. +But--oh, Spinny, dear protecting thing, I want--I also want--" She broke +off abruptly, and Spinrobin, unable to see her face buried against his +shoulder, could not guess whether she was laughing or weeping. He only +divined that something in her heart, profound as life itself, something +she had never been warned to conceal, was clamoring for comprehension and +satisfaction. + +"Miriam, tell me exactly. I'm sure I shall understand--" + +"I want Winky to be with us always--not only sometimes--on little +visits," he heard between the broken breathing. + +"I'll tell him--" + +"But there's no good telling _him_," she interrupted almost fiercely, "it +is _me_ you must tell...." + +Spinrobin's heart sank within him. She was in pain and he could not quite +understand. He pressed her hard against him, keeping silence. + +Presently she lifted her face from his coat, and he saw the tears of +mingled pain and happiness in her eyes--the eyes of this girl-woman who +knew not the common ugly standards of life because no woman had ever told +them to her. + +"You see, Winky is not really mine unless I have some share in making him +too," she said very softly. "When I have made him too, then he will stay +forever with us, I think." + +And Spinrobin, beginning to understand, knowing within him that singular +exultation of triumphant love which comes to a pure man when he meets the +mother-to-be of his firstborn, lowered his own face very reverently to +hers, and kissed her on the cheeks and eyes--saying nothing, and vaguely +wondering whether the awful name that Skale sought with so much thunder +and lightning, did not lie at that very moment, sweetly singing its +divinest message, between the contact of this pair of youthful lips, the +lips of himself and Miriam. + + +II + +And Philip Skale, meanwhile, splendid and independent of all common +obstacles, thundered along his tempestuous mad way, regardless and +ignorant of all signs of disaffection. The rest of that week--a week of +haunting wonder and beauty--was devoted to the carrying out of the +strange program. It is not possible to tell in detail the experience of +each separate room. Spinrobin does it, yet only succeeds in repeating +himself; and, as has been seen, his powers failed even in that first +chamber of awe. The language does not exist in which adventures so remote +from normal experience can be clothed without straining the mind to the +verge of the unintelligible. It appears, however, that each room +possessed its color, note and form, which later were to issue forth and +combine in the even vaster pattern, chord and outline which should +include them all. + +Even the thought of it strained the possibilities of belief and the +resources of the imagination.... His soul fluttered and shrank. + +They continued the processes of prayer and fasting Skale had ordained as +the time for the experiment drew near, and the careful vibratory +utterance of the "word" belonging to each room, the vibrations of which +threw their inner selves into a condition of safe--or comparatively +safe--receptivity. But Spinrobin no longer said his prayers, for the +thought that soon he was to call upon the divine and mighty name in +reality prevented his doing so in the old way of childhood--nominally. He +feared there might come an answer. + +He literally walked the dizzy edge of precipices that dropped over the +edge of the world. The incoherence of all this traffic with sound and +name had always bewildered him, even to the point of darkness, whereas +now it did more, it appalled him in some sense that was monstrous and +terrifying. Yet, while weak with terror when he tried to face the +possible results, and fevered with the notion of entering some new +condition (even though one of glory) where Miriam might no longer be as +he now knew her, it was the savage curiosity he felt that prevented his +coming to a definite decision and telling Mr. Skale that he withdrew from +the whole affair. + +Then the idea grew in his mind that the clergyman was obsessed by some +perverted spiritual force, some "Devil" who deceived him, and that the +name he sought to pronounce was after all not good--not God. His +thoughts, fears, hopes, all became hopelessly entangled, through them one +thing alone holding clear and steady--the passionate desire to keep +Miriam as she was now, and to be with her forever. His mind played tricks +with him too. Day and night the house echoed with new sounds; the very +walls grew resonant; the entire building, buried away among these +desolate hills, trembled as though he were imprisoned within the belly of +some monstrous and gigantic fiddle. + +Mr. Skale, too, began to change, it seemed. While physically he +increased, as it were, with the power of his burning enthusiasm, his +beard longer and more ragged, his eyes more luminous, and his voice +shaking through the atmosphere almost like wind, his personality, in some +curious fashion, seemed at the same time to retire and become oddly +tinged with a certain remoteness from reality. Spinrobin once or twice +caught himself wondering if he were not after all some legendary or pagan +figure, some mighty character of dream or story, and that presently he, +Spinrobin, would awake and write down the most wonderful vision the world +had ever known. His imagination, it will be seen, was affected in more +ways than one.... + +With a tremendous earnestness the clergyman went about the building, down +the long dark corridors and across the halls, his long soft strides took +him swiftly everywhere; his mere presence charged with some potent force +that betrayed itself in the fire of his eyes and the flush of his cheeks. + +Spinrobin thought of him as some daring blasphemer, knocking at a door in +the sky. The sound of that knocking ran all about the universe. And when +the door opened, the heavens would roll back like an enormous, flat +curtain.... + +"Any moment almost," Skale whispered to him, smiling, "the day may be +upon us. Keep yourself ready--and--in tune." + +And Spinrobin, expecting a thunderclap in his sleep, but ever plucky, +answered in his high-pitched voice, "I'm ready, Mr. Philip Skale, I'm +ready! I'm game too!" when, truthfully speaking, perhaps, he was neither +one nor other. + +He would start up from sleep in the nighttime at the least sound, and the +roar of the December gales about the house became voices of portent that +conveyed far more than the mere rushing of inarticulate winds.... + +"When the hour comes--and it is close at hand--we shall not fail to know +it," said Skale, pallid with excitement. "The Letters will be out upon +us. They will live! But with an intense degree of exuberant life far +beyond what we know as life--we, in our puny, sense-limited bodies!" And +the scorn in his voice came from the center of his heart. "For what we +hear as sound is only a section," he cried, "only a section of +sound-vibrations--as they exist." + +"The vibrations our ears can take are _very_ small, I know," interpolated +Spinrobin, cold at heart, while Miriam, hiding behind chairs and tables +that offered handy protection, watched with mingled anxiety and +confidence, knowing that in the last resort her adorable and "wonderful +Spinny" would guide her aright. Love filled her heart, ousting that other +portentous Heaven! + + +III + +And then Skale announced that the time was ready for rehearsals. + +"Let us practice the chord," he said, "so that when the moment comes +suddenly upon us, in the twinkling of an eye, in the daytime or in the +night, we shall be prepared, and each shall fly to his appointed place +and utter his appointed note." + +The reasons for these definite arrangements he did not pretend to +explain, for they belonged to a part of his discovery that he kept +rigidly to himself; and why Spinrobin and Miriam were to call their notes +from the corridor itself, while Skale boomed his great bass in the +prepared cellar, Mrs. Mawle chanting her alto midway in the hall, acting +as a connecting channel in some way, was apparently never made fully +clear. In Spinrobin's imagination it was very like a practical +illustration of the written chord, the notes rising from the bass clef to +the high soprano--the cellar to the attic, so to speak. But, whatever the +meaning behind it, Skale was exceedingly careful to teach to each of +them his and her appointed place. + +"When the Letters move of themselves, and make the first sign," he +repeated, "we shall know it beyond all doubt or question. At any moment +of the day or night it may come. Each of you then hasten to your +appointed place and wait for the sound of my bass in the cellar. There +will be no mistake about it; you will hear it rising through the +building. Then, each in turn, as it reaches you, lift your voices and +call your notes. The chord thus rising through the building will gather +in the flying Letters: it will unite them; it will summon them down to +the fundamental master-tone I utter in the cellar. The moment the Letter +summoned by each particular voice reaches the cellar, that voice must +cease its utterance. Thus, one by one, the four mighty Letters will come +to rest below. The gongs will vibrate in sympathetic resonance; the +colors will tremble and respond; the finely drawn wires will link the +two, and the lens of gas will lead them to the wax, and the record of the +august and terrible syllable will be completely chained. At any desired +moment afterwards I shall be able to reawaken it. Its phonetic utterance, +its correct pronunciation, captured thus in the two media of air and +ether, sound and light, will be in my safe possession, ready for use. + +"But"--and he looked down upon his listeners with a dreadful and +impressive gravity that yet only just concealed the bursting exultation +the thought caused him to feel--"remember that once you have uttered your +note, you will have sucked out from the Letter a portion of its own +terrific life and force, which will immediately pass into yourself. You +will instantly absorb this, for you will have called upon a mighty +name--the mightiest--and your prayer will have been answered." He stooped +and whispered as in an act of earnest prayer, "_We shall be as Gods_!" + +Something of cold splendor, terribly possessing, came close to them as +he spoke the words; for this was no empty phrase. Behind it lay the great +drive of a relentless reality. And it struck at the very root of the fear +that grew every moment more insistent in the hearts of the two lovers. +They did not want to become as gods. They desired to remain quietly human +and to _love_! + +But before either of them could utter speech, even had they dared, the +awful clergyman continued; and nothing brought home to them more vividly +the horrible responsibility of the experiment, and the results of +possible failure, than the few words with which he concluded. + +"And to mispronounce, to utter falsely, to call inaccurately, will mean +to summon into life upon the world--and into the heart of the +utterer--that which is incomplete, that which is not God--Devils!--devils +of that subtle Alteration which is destruction--the devils of a Lie." + + * * * * * + +And so for hours at a time they rehearsed the sounds of the chord, but +very softly, lest the sound should rise and reach the four rooms and +invite the escape of the waiting Letters prematurely. + +Mrs. Mawle, holding the bit of paper on which her instructions were +clearly written, was as eager almost as her master, and as the note she +had to utter was practically the only one left in the register of her +voice, her deafness provided little difficulty. + +"Though when the letters awake into life and cry aloud," said Skale, +beaming upon her dear old apple-skinned face, "it will be in tones that +even the deaf shall hear. For they will spell a measure of redemption +that shall destroy in a second of time all physical disabilities +whatsoever...." + +It was at this moment Spinrobin asked a question that for days had +been hovering about his lips. He asked it gravely, hesitatingly, even +solemnly, while Miriam hung upon the answer with an anxiety as great +as his own. + +"And if any one of us fails," he said, "and pronounces falsely, will the +result affect all of us, or only the utterer?" + +"The utterer only," replied the clergyman. "For it is his own spirit that +must absorb the forces and powers invoked by the sound he utters." + +He took the question lightly, it seemed. The possibility of failure was +too remote to be practical. + + + + +Chapter XIII + + +I + +But Spinrobin was hardly prepared for the suddenness of the denouement. +He had looked for a longer period of preparation, with the paraphernalia +of a considerable, even an august ceremony. Instead, the announcement +came with an abrupt simplicity that caught him with a horrid shock of +surprise. He was taken wholly unawares. + +"The only thing I fear," Mr. Skale had confided to them, "is that the +vibrations of our chord may have already risen to the rooms and cause a +premature escape. But, even so, we shall have ample warning. For the +deaf, being protected from the coarser sounds of earth, are swift to hear +the lightest whispers from Heaven. Mrs. Mawle will know. Mrs. Mawle will +instantly warn us...." + +And this, apparently, was what happened, though not precisely as Mr. +Skale had intended, nor with the margin for preparation he had hoped. It +was all so swift and brief and shattering, that to hear Spinrobin tell it +makes one think of a mass of fireworks that some stray spark has sent +with blazing explosion into the air, to the complete loss of the +calculated effect had they gone off seriatim as intended. + +And in the awful stress of excitement there can be no question that +Spinny acted out of that subconscious region of the mind which considers +and weighs deeds before passing them on to the surface mind, translating +them into physical expression and thinking itself responsible for the +whole operation. The course he adopted was thus instinctive, and, since +he had no time to judge, blameless. + +Neither he nor Miriam had any idea really that their minds, +subconsciously, were already made up. Yet only that morning he had been +talking with her, skirting round the subject as they always did, ashamed +of his doubts about success, and trying to persuade her, and, therefore, +himself, that the path of duty lay in following their leader blindly to +the very end. + +He had seen her on the stairs ahead of him, and had overtaken her +quickly. He drew her down beside him, and they sat like two children +perched on the soft-carpeted steps. + +"It's coming, you know," he said abruptly, "the moment's getting +very close." + +He felt the light shudder that passed through her into himself. She +turned her face to him and he saw the flush of excitement painted in the +center of the usually pale cheeks. He thought of some rare flower, +delicately exotic, that had sprung suddenly into blossom from the heart +of the bleak December day, out of the very boards whereon they sat. + +"We shall then be as gods," he added, "filled with the huge power of +those terrific Letters. And that is only the beginning." In himself he +was striving to coax a fading enthusiasm, and to pour it into her. Her +little hand stole into his. "We shall be a sort of angel together, I +suppose. Just think of it...!" His voice was not as thrilling as it ought +to have been, for very human notes vibrated down below in the part he +tried to keep back. He saw the flush fade from her cheeks, and the pallor +spread. "You and I, Miriam--something tremendous together, greater than +any other man and woman in the whole world. Think of it, dear baby; just +think of it...!" + +A tiny frown gathered upon her forehead, darkening the grey eyes +with shadows. + +"But--lose our Winky!" she said, nestling against his coat, her voice +singularly soft, her fingers scratching gently the palm of his hand +where they lay. + +"Hush, hush!" he answered, kissing her into silence. "We must have more +faith. I think everything will be all right. And there is no reason why +we should lose our Winky," he added, very tenderly, smothering the doubt +as best he could, "although we may find his name changed. Like the rest +of us, he will get a 'new name' I suppose." + +"Then he won't be _our_ Winky any longer," she objected, with a touch of +obstinacy that was very seductive. "We shall all be different. Perhaps +we shall be too wonderful to need each other any more.... Oh, Spinny, +you precious thing my life needs, think of that! We may be too wonderful +even to care!" + +Spinrobin turned and faced her. He tried to speak with authority and +conviction, but he was a bad actor always. He met her soft grey eyes, +already moist and shining with a tenderness of love beyond belief, and +gazed into them with what degree of sternness he could. + +"Miriam," he said solemnly, "is it possible that you do not want us to +be as gods?" + +Her answer came this time without hesitation. His pretended severity only +made her happy, for nothing could intimidate by a hair's breadth this +exquisite first love of her awakening soul. + +"Some day, perhaps, oh, my sweet Master," she whispered with trembling +lips, "but not now. I want to be on earth first with you--and with +our Winky." + +To hear that precious little voice call him "sweet Master" was almost +more than he could bear. He made an effort, however, to insist upon this +fancied idea of "duty" to Skale; though everything, of course, betrayed +him--eyes, voice, gestures. + +"But we owe it to Mr. Skale to become as gods," he faltered, trying to +make the volume of his voice atone for its lack of conviction. + +And it was then she uttered the simple phrase that utterly confounded +him, and showed him the new heaven and new earth wherein he and she and +Winky already lived. + +"I am as God _now_," she said simply, the whole passion of a clean, +strong little soul behind the words. "You have made me so! You love me!" + + +II + +The same moment, before they could speak or act, Skale was upon them from +behind with a roar. + +"Practicing your splendid notes together!" he cried, thundering down the +steps past them, three at a time, clothed for the first time in the +flowing scarlet robe he usually wore only in the particular room where +his own "note" lived. "That's capital! Sing it together in your hearts +and in your souls and in your minds; and the more the better!" + +He swept by them like a storm, vanishing through the hall below like some +living flame of fire. They both understood that he wore that robe for +protection, and that throughout the house the heralds of the approaching +powers of the imprisoned Letters were therefore already astir. His steps +echoed below them in the depths of the building as he descended to the +cellar, intent upon some detail of the appalling consummation that drew +every minute nearer. + +They turned and faced one another, breathless a little. Tenderness and +terror shone plainly in their eyes, but Spinrobin, ever an ineffectual +little man, and with nothing of the "Master" really in his composition +anywhere, found no word to speak. That sudden irruption of the terrific +clergyman into their intimate world had come with an effect of dramatic +and incalculable authority. Like a blast of air that drives the furnace +to new heat and turns the metal white, his mind now suddenly saw clear +and sure. The effect of the incident was too explosive, however, for him +to find expression. Action he found in a measure, but no words. He took +Miriam passionately into his arms as they stood there in the gathering +dusk upon the staircase of that haunted and terrible building, and Miriam +it was who found the words upon which they separated and went quietly +away to the solitude each needed for the soul. + +"We'll leave the gods alone," she said with gentle decision, yet +making it seem as though she appealed to his greater strength and +wisdom to decide; "I want nothing but you--you and Winky. And all you +really want is me." + +But in his room he heard the vibrations of the clergyman's voice rising +up through the floor and walls as he practiced in the cellar the sounds +with which the ancient Hebrews concealed the Tetragrammaton: +YOD--HE--VAU--HE: JEHOVAH--JAHVE--of which the approaching great +experiment, however, concerned itself only with the opening vibrations of +the first letter--YOD.... + +And, as he listened, he hesitated again ... wondering after all whether +Miriam was right. + + +III + +It was towards the end of their short silent dinner that very night--the +silence due to the fact that everybody was intently listening--when +Spinrobin caught the whisper of a singular faint sound that he took first +to be the rising of wind. The wind sometimes came down that way with +curious gulps from the terraces of the surrounding moors. Yet in this +sound was none of that rush and sigh that the hills breed. It did not +drop across the curves of the world; it rose from the center. + +He looked up sharply, then at once realized that the sound was not +outside at all, but inside--inside the very room where he sat facing +Skale and Miriam. Then something in his soul recognized it. It was the +first wave in an immense vibration. + +Something stretched within him as foam stretches on the elastic side of a +heaped Atlantic roller, retreated, then came on again with a second +gigantic crest. The rhythm of the huge sound had caught him. The life in +him expanded awfully, rose to far summits, dropped to utter depths. A +sense of glowing exaltation swept through him as though wings of power +lifted his heart with enormous ascendancy. The biggest passions of his +soul stirred--the sweetest dreams, yearnings, aspirations he had ever +known were blown to fever heat. Above all, his passion for Miriam waxed +tumultuous and possessed him. + +Mr. Skale dropped his fruit knife and uttered a cry, but a cry of so +peculiar a character that Spinrobin thought for a moment he was about to +burst into song. At the same instant he stood up, and his chair fell +backwards with a crash upon the floor. Spinrobin stood up too. He asserts +always that he was lifted up. He recognized no conscious effort of his +own. It was at this point, moreover, that Miriam, pale as linen, yet +uttering no sound and fully mistress of herself, left her side of the +table and ran round swiftly to the protection of her lover. + +She came close up. "Spinny," she said, "it's come!" + +Thus all three were standing round that dinner table on the verge of some +very vigorous action not yet disclosed, as people, vigilant and alert, +stand up at a cry of fire, when the door from the passage opened noisily +and in rushed Mrs. Mawle, surrounded by an atmosphere of light such as +might come from a furnace door suddenly thrown wide in some dark foundry. +Only the light was not steady; it was whirling. + +She ran across the floor as though dancing--the dancing of a +child--propelled, it seemed, by an irresistible drive of force behind; +while with her through the opened door came a roaring volume of sound +that was terrible as Niagara let loose, yet at the same time exquisitely +sweet, as birds or children singing. Upon these two incongruous qualities +Spinrobin always insists. + +"The deaf shall hear--!" came sharply from the clergyman's lips, the +sentence uncompleted, for the housekeeper cut him short. + +"They're out!" she cried with a loud, half-frightened jubilance; "Mr. +Skale's prisoners are bursting their way about the house. And one of +them," she added with a scream of joy and terror mingled, "is in my +throat...!" + +If the odd phrase she made use of stuck vividly in Spinrobin's memory, +the appearance she presented impressed him even more. For her face was +shining and alight, radiant as when Skale had called her true name weeks +before. Flashes of flame-like beauty ran about the eyes and mouth; and +she looked eighteen--eternally eighteen--with a youth that was permanent +and unchanging. Moreover, not only was hearing restored to her, but her +left arm, withered for years, was in the act of pointing to the ceiling, +instinct with vigorous muscular life. Her whole presentment was +splendid, intense--redeemed. + +"The deaf hear!" repeated Skale in a shout, and was across the room with +the impetus of a released projectile. "The Letters are out and alive! To +your appointed places! The syllable has caught us! Quick, quick! If you +love your soul and truth ... fly!" + +Deafening thunders rushed and crashed and blew about the room, +interpenetrated everywhere at the same time by that searching strain of +sweetness Spinrobin had first noticed. The sense of life, running free +and abundant, was very remarkable. The same moment he found his hand +clasped, and felt himself torn along by the side of the rushing clergyman +into the hall. Behind them "danced" Mrs. Mawle, her cap awry, her apron +flying, her elastic-side boots taking the light, dancing step of youth. +With quick, gliding tread Miriam, still silent, was at his heels. He +remembers her delicate, strange perfume reaching him faintly through all +the incredible turmoil of that impetuous exit. + +In the hall the roar increased terrifically about his ears. Skale, in his +biggest booming voice, was uttering the names of Hebrew +"angels"--invoking forces, that is, to his help; and behind him Mrs. +Mawle was singing--singing fragments apparently of the "note" she had to +utter, as well as fragments of her own "true name" thus magically +recovered. Her restored arm gyrated furiously, her tripping youth spelt +witchery. Yet the whole madness of the scene came to Spinrobin with a +freezing wind of terror; for about it was a lawless, audacious blasphemy, +that must surely win for itself a quite appalling punishment.... + +Yet nothing happened at once--nothing destructive, at least. Skale +and the housekeeper, he saw, were hurriedly robing themselves in the +red and yellow surplices that hung from nails in the hall, and the +instinct to laugh at the sight was utterly overwhelmed when he remembered +that these were the colors which were used for safety in their respective +"rooms." ... It was a scene of wild confusion and bewilderment which the +memory refuses to reproduce coherently. In his own throat already began a +passionate rising of sound that he knew was the "note" he had to utter +attempting to escape, summoned forth automatically by these terrible +vibrating Letters in the air. A cataract of sound seemed to fill the +building and made it shake to its very foundations. + +But the hall, he saw, was not only alive with "music," it was ablaze with +light--a white and brilliant glory that at first dazzled him to the point +of temporary blindness. + +The same second Mr. Skale's voice, storming its way somehow above the +tumult, made itself heard: + +"To the rooms upstairs, Spinrobin! To the corridor with Miriam! And when +you hear my voice from the cellar--_utter_! We may yet be in time to +unite the Letters...!" + +He released the secretary's hand, flinging it from him, and was off with +a bounding, leaping motion like an escaped animal towards the stone +passage that led to the cellar steps; and Spinrobin, turning about +himself like a top in a perfect frenzy of bewilderment, heard his great +voice as he disappeared round the corner: + +"It has come upon me like a thief in the night! Before I am fully +prepared it has called me! May the powers of the Name have mercy upon my +soul...!" And he was gone. For the last time had Spinrobin set his eyes +upon the towering earthly form of the Rev. Philip Skale. + + +IV + +Then, at first, it seems, the old enthusiasm caught him, and with him, +therefore, caught Miriam, too. That savage and dominant curiosity to know +clutched him, overpowering even the assaults of a terror that fairly +battered him. Through all the chaos and welter of his dazed mind he +sought feverishly for the "note" he had to utter, yet found it not, for +he was too horribly confused. Fiddles, sand-patterns, colored robes, +gongs, giant tuning-forks, wax-sheeted walls, aged-faces-turned-young and +caverns-by-the-sea jostled one another in his memory with a jumble of +disproportion quite inextricable. + +Next, impelled by that driving sense of duty to Skale, he turned to the +girl at his side: "Can you do it?" he cried. + +Unable to make her voice heard above the clamor she nodded quickly in +acquiescence. Spinrobin noticed that her little mouth was set rather +firmly, though there was a radiance about her eyes and features that made +her sweetly beautiful. He remembers that her loveliness and her pluck +uplifted him above all former littlenesses of hesitation; and, seizing +her outstretched hand, they flew up the main staircase and in less than a +minute reached the opening of the long corridor where the rooms were. + +Here, however, they stopped with a gasp, for a hurricane of moving air +met them in the face like the draught from some immense furnace. Again +the crest of a wave in the colossal sound-vibration had caught them. +Staggering against the wall, they tried again and again to face the +tempest of sound and light, but the space beyond them was lit with the +same unearthly brilliance as the hall, and out of the whole long throat +of that haunted corridor issued such a passion of music and such a +torrent of gorgeous color, that it seemed impossible for any aggregation +of physical particles--least of all poor human bodies--to remain coherent +for a single instant before the concentrated onslaught. + +Yet, game to the inmost core of his little personality, and raised far +above his normal powers by the evidence of Miriam's courage and fidelity, +he struggled with all his might and searched through the chambers of his +being for the note he was ordained to utter in the chord. The ignominy of +failure, now that the great experiment was full upon him--failure in +Miriam's eyes, too--was simply impossible to contemplate. Yet, in spite +of every effort, the memory of that all-important note escaped him +utterly, for the forces of his soul floundered, helpless and disheveled, +before the too mighty splendors that were upon him at such close +quarters. The sounds he actually succeeded in emitting between dry and +quivering lips were pitiful and feeble beyond words. + +Down that living corridor, meanwhile, he saw the doors of the four rooms +were gone, consumed like tissue paper; and through the narrow portals +there shouldered forward, bathed in light ineffable, the separate +outlines of the Letters so long imprisoned in inactivity. And with their +appearance the sounds instantly ceased, having overpassed the limits of +what is audible to human ears. A great stillness dropped about them with +an abrupt crash of utter silence. For a "crash" of silence it +was--all-shattering. + +And then, from the categories of the incomprehensible and unmanifest, +"something" loomed forth towards them where, limp and shaking, they +leaned against the wall, and they witnessed the indescribable operation +by which the four Letters, whirling and alive, ran together and melted +into a single terrific semblance of a FORM ... the sight of which entered +the heart of Spinrobin and threatened to split it asunder with the joy of +the most sublime terror and adoration a human soul has ever known. + +And the whole gigantic glory of Skale's purpose came upon him like a +tempest. The magnificent effrontery by which the man sought to storm his +way to heaven again laid its spell upon him. The reaction was of amazing +swiftness. It almost seemed as though time ceased to operate, so +instantaneously did his mood pass from terror to elation--wild, ecstatic +elation that could dare anything and everything to share in the awful +delight and wonder of Skale's transcendent experiment. + +And so, forgetting himself and his little disabilities of terror and +shrinking, he sought once again for the note he was to utter in the +chord. And this time he found it. + + +V + +Very faintly, yet distinctly audible in the deep stillness, it sounded +far away down in the deeps of his being. And, with a splendid spiritual +exultation tearing and swelling in his heart, he turned at once +triumphantly to Miriam beside him. + +"Utter your note too!" he cried. "Utter it with mine, for any moment now +we shall hear the command from the cellar.... Be ready...!" + +And the FORM, meanwhile, limned in the wonder of an undecipherable +or at least untranslatable geometry, silently roaring, enthroned in +the undiscoverable colors beyond the spectrum, swept towards them +as he spoke. + +At the same instant Miriam answered him, her exquisite little face set +like a rock, her marble pallor painted with the glory of the approaching +splendors. Just when the moment of success was upon them; when the +flying Letters were abroad; when all the difficult weeks of preparation +were face to face with the consummation; and when any moment Skale's +booming bass might rise from the bowels of the building as the signal to +utter the great chord and unite the fragments of the first divine +syllable; when Spinrobin had at last conquered his weakness and recovered +his note--then, at this decisive and supreme moment, Miriam asserted +herself and took the reins of command. + +"No," she said, looking with sudden authority straight into his eyes, +"no! I will not utter the note. Nor shall you utter yours!" And she +clapped her little hand tight upon his mouth. + +In that instant of unutterable surprise the two great forces of his life +and personality met together with an explosive violence wholly beyond his +power to control. For on the one hand lay the fierce enticement of +Skale's heaven, with all that it portended, and on the other the deep +though temporarily submerged human passion of his love for the girl. +Miriam's sudden action revealed the truth to him better than any +argument. In a flash he realized that her choice was made, and that she +was in entire and final revolt against the whole elaborate experiment and +all that it involved. The risk of losing her Spinny, or finding him +changed in some condition of redemption where he would no longer be the +little human thing she so dearly loved, had helped her to this final, +swift conclusion. + +With her hand tight over his lips, and her face of white decision before +him, he understood. She called him with those big grey eyes to the sweet +and common uses of life, instead of to the heights of some audacious +heaven where they might be as gods with Philip Skale. She clung to +humanity. And Spinrobin, seeing her at last with spiritual eyes fully +opened, knew finally that she was right. + +"But oh," he always cries, "in that moment I knew the most terrible +choice I have ever had to make, for it was not a choice between life and +death, but a choice between two lives, each of infinite promised wonder. +And what do you think it was that decided me, and made me choose the +wholesome, humble life with little Miriam in preference to the grandeur +of Skale's vast dream? What _do_ you think?" And his face always turns +pink and then flame-colored as he asks it, hesitating absurdly before +giving the answer. "I'll tell you, because you'd never guess in this +world." And then he lowers his voice and says, "It was the delicious +little sweet perfume of her fingers as she held them over my lips....!" + +That delicate, faint smell was the symbol of human happiness, and +through all the whirlwind of sound and color about him, it somehow +managed to convey its poignant, searching message of the girl's utter +love straight into his heart. Thus curiously out of proportion and +insignificant, indeed, are sometimes the decisive details that in +moments of overwhelming experience turn the course of life's river this +way or that.... + +With a single wild cry in his soul that found no audible expression, he +gave up the unequal struggle. He turned, and with Miriam by his side, +flew down the corridor from the advent of the Immensity that was upon +them--from the approach of the escaping Letters. + + +VI + +How Spinrobin found his way out of that sound-stricken house remains an +unsolved mystery. He never understood it himself; he remembers only that +when they reached the ground floor the vibrations of Skale's opening bass +note had already begun. Its effect, too, was immediately noticeable. For +the roar of the escaping Letters, which upstairs had reached so immense a +volume as to be recognized only in terms of silence, now suddenly grew in +a measure harnessed and restrained. Their vibration became reduced--down +closer to the sixteen-foot wavelength which is the limit of human +audition. They were being leashed in by the summoning master-tone. They +grew once more audible. + +On the rising swirl of sound the two humans were swept down passages +and across halls, as two leaves are borne by a tempest, and after +frantic efforts, in which Spinrobin bruised his body against doors and +walls without number, he found himself at last in the open air, and at +a considerable distance from the house of terror. Stars shone overhead. +He saw the outline of hills. Breaths of cool wind fanned his burning +skin and eyes. + +But he dared not turn to look or listen. The music of that opening note, +now rising through the building from the cellar, might catch him and win +him back. The chord in which himself and Miriam were to have uttered +their appointed tones, even half-told, was still mighty to overwhelm. Its +effect upon the Letters themselves had been immediate. + +The feeling that he had proved faithless to Skale, unworthy of the great +experiment, never properly attuned to this fearful music of the +gods--this was forgotten in the overmastering desire to escape from it +all into the safety of common human things with Miriam. Setting his +course ever up the hills, he ran on and on, till breath failed him +utterly and he was obliged to stop for lack of strength. And it was only +then he realized that the whole time the girl had been in his arms. He +had been carrying her. + +Placing her on the ground, he caught a glimpse of her eyes in the +darkness, and saw that they were still charged with the one devouring +passion that had made the sacrifice of Skale and of all her training +since birth inevitable. Soft and glowing with her first knowledge of +love, her grey eyes shone like stars newly risen. + +"Come, come!" he whispered hoarsely; "we must get as far as +possible--away from it all. Across the hills we shall find safety. Once +the splendors overtake us we are lost...." + +Seizing her by the hand, they pressed on again, the ocean of sound rising +and thundering behind them and below. + +Without knowing it, he had taken the path by which the clergyman had +brought him from the station weeks ago on the day of his first arrival. +With a confused memory, as of a dream, he recognized it. The ground was +slippery with dead leaves whose odor penetrated sharply the air of night. +Everywhere about him, as they paused from time to time in the little open +spaces, the trees pressed up thickly; and ever from the valley they had +just left the increasing tide of sound came pouring up after them like +the roar of the sea escaping through doors upon the surface of the world. + +And even now the marvelous, enticing wonder of it caught him more than +once and made him hesitate. The sense of what he was giving up sickened +him with a great sudden yearning of regret. The mightiness of that loved +leader, lonely and unafraid, trafficking with the principalities and +powers of sound, and reckoning without misgiving upon the cooperation of +his other "notes"--this plucked fearfully at his heartstrings. But only +in great tearing gusts, so to speak, which passed the instant he realized +the little breathless, grey-eyed girl at his side, charged with her +beautiful love for him and the wholesome ambition for human things. + +"Oh! but the heaven we're losing...!" he cried once aloud, +unable to contain himself. "Oh, Miriam ... and I have proved +unworthy ... small...!" + +"Small enough to stay with me forever and ever ... here on the earth," +she replied passionately, seizing his hand and drawing him further up the +hill. Then she stopped suddenly and gathered a handful of dead leaves, +moss, twigs and earth. The exquisite familiar perfume as she held it to +his face pierced through him with a singular power of conviction. + +"We should lose _this_," she exclaimed; "there's none of this ... in +heaven! The earth, the earth, the dear, beautiful earth, with you ... and +Winky ... is what I want!" + +And when he stopped her outburst with a kiss, fully understanding the +profound truth she so quaintly expressed, he smelt the trees and +mountains in her hair, and her fragrance was mingled there with the +fragrance of that old earth on which they stood. + + +VII + +The rising flood of sound sent them charging ahead the same minute, for +it seemed upon them with a rush; and it was only after much stumbling and +floundering among trees and boulders that they emerged into the open +space of the hills beyond the woods. Actually, perhaps, they had been +running for twenty minutes, but to them it seemed that they had been +running for days. They stood still and looked about them. + +"You shall never regret, never, never," Miriam whispered quickly. "I can +make you happier than all this ever could," and she waved her arm towards +the house below. "And you know it, my little Master." + +But before he could reply, or do more than place an arm about her waist +to support her, something came to pass that communicated its message to +their souls with an incalculable certainty neither could explain. +Perhaps it was that distance enabled them to distinguish between the +sounds more clearly, or perhaps their beings were still so intimately +connected with Skale that some psychic warning traveled up to them across +the night; but at any rate there then came about this sharp and sudden +change in the quality of the sound-tempest round them that proclaimed the +arrival of an exceedingly dramatic moment. The nature of the rushing, +flying vibrations underwent alteration. And, looking one another in the +eyes, they realized what it meant. + +"He's beginning ..." faltered Spinrobin in some skeleton of a voice. +"Skale has begun to _utter_...!" He said it beneath his breath. + +Down in the cellar of that awful house the giant clergyman, alone and +undismayed, had begun to call the opening vibration of the living chord +which was to gather in this torrent of escaping Letters and unite them in +temporary safety in the crypts of the prepared vault. For the first time +in eighteen hundred years the initial sound of the "Name that rusheth +through the universe"--the first sound of its opening syllable, that +is--was about to thunder its incalculable message over the earth. + +Crouching close against each other they stood there on the edge of the +woods, the night darkly smothering about them, the bare, open hills lying +beyond in the still sky, waiting for the long-apprehended climax--the +utterance of the first great syllable. + +"It will make him ... as God," crashed the thought through Spinrobin's +brain as he experienced the pangs of the fiercest remorse he had ever +known. "Even without our two notes the power will be sublime...!" + +But, through Miriam's swiftly-beating heart, as she pressed closer and +closer: "I know your true name ... and you are mine. What else in heaven +or earth can ever matter...?" + + + + +Chapter XIV + + +I + +Skale had indeed begun to utter. And to these two bewildered children +standing there alone with their love upon the mountain, it seemed that +the whole world knew. + +Those desolate hills that rolled away like waves beneath the stars; the +whispering woods about them; the distant sea, eternally singing its own +note of sadness; the boulders at their feet; the very stars themselves, +listening in the heart of night--one and all were somehow aware that a +portion of the great Name which first called them into being was about to +issue from the sleep of ages once again into manifestation....Perhaps +to quicken them into vaster life, perhaps to change their forms, perhaps +to merge them all back into the depths of the original "word" of +creation ... with the roar of a dissolving universe.... + +Through everything, from the heart of the hidden primroses below the soil +to the center of the huge moors above, there ran some swift thrill of +life as the sounds of which they were the visible expression trembled in +sympathetic resonance with the opening vibrations of the great syllable. + +Philip Skale had begun to utter. Alone in the cellar of that +tempest-stricken house, already aware probably that the upper notes of +his chord had failed him, he was at last in the act of calling upon the +Name that Rusheth through the Universe ... the syllable whose powers +should pass into his own being and make him as the gods.... + +And, first of all, to the infinite surprise of these two listening, +shaking lovers, the roaring thunders that had been battling all about +them, grew faint and small, and then dropped away into mere trickles of +sound, retreating swiftly down into the dark valley where the house +stood, as though immense and invisible leashes drew them irresistibly +back. One by one the Letters fled away, leaving only a murmur of +incredibly sweet echoes behind them in the hills, as the master-sound, +spoken by this fearless and audacious man, gathered them into their +appointed places in the cellar. + +But if they expected stupendous things to follow they were at first +singularly disappointed. For, instead of woe and terror, instead of the +foundering of the visible universe, there fell about the listening world +a cloak of the most profound silence they had ever known, soft beyond +conception. The Name was not in the whirlwind. Out of the heart of that +deathly stillness it came--a small, sweet voice, that was undeniably the +voice of Philip Skale, its awful thunders all smoothed away. With it, +too, like a faint overtone, came the yet gentler music of another voice. +The bass and alto were uttering their appointed notes in harmony and +without dismay. + +Everywhere the sound rose up through the darkness of great distance, yet +at the same time ran most penetratingly sweet, close beside them in their +very ears. So magically intimate indeed was it, yet so potentially huge +for all its soft beginning, that Spinrobin declares that what he heard +was probably not the actual voices, but only some high liberated +harmonics of them. + +The sounds, moreover, were not distinguishable as consonants and vowels +in the ordinary sense, and to this day remain for him beyond all reach +of possible reproduction. He did not hear them as "word" or "syllable," +but as some incalculably splendid Message that was too mighty to be +taken in, yet at the same time was sweeter than all imagined music, +simple as a little melody "sweetly sung in tune," artless as wind +through rustling branches. + +And, moreover, as this small, sweet voice ran singing everywhere about +them in the darkness of hills and woods, Spinrobin realized, with a +whole revolution of wonder sweeping through him, that the sound, for all +its gentleness, was at work vehemently upon the surface of the +landscape, altering and shifting the pattern of the solid earth, just as +the sand had wreathed into outlines at the sound of his own voice weeks +ago, and as the form of the clergyman had changed at the vibrations of +the test night. + +The first letters of the opening syllable of this divine and magical +name were passing over the world ... shifting the myriad molecules that +composed it by the stress and stir of its vast harmonics ... changing +the pattern. + +But this time the change was not dreadful; the new outline, even before +he actually perceived it, was beautiful above all known forms of beauty. +The outer semblance of the old earth appeared to melt away and reveal +that heart of clean and dazzling wonder which burns ever at its inmost +core--the naked spirit divined by poets and mystics since the beginning +of time. It was a new heaven and a new earth that pulsed below them in +response to the majesty of this small sweet voice. All nature knew, from +the birds that started out of sleep into passionate singing, to the fish +that stirred in the depths of the sea, and the wild deer that sprang +alert in their wintry coverts, scenting an eternal spring. For the earth +rolled up as a scroll, shaking the outworn skin of centuries from her +face, and suffering all her rocky structure to drop away and disclose the +soft and glowing loveliness of an actual being--a being most tenderly and +exquisitely alive. It was the beginning of spiritual vision in their own +hearts. The name had set them free. The blind saw--a part of God.... + + +II + +And then, in Spinrobin's heart, the realization of failure--that he was +not in his appointed place, following his great leader to the stars, +clashed together with the splendor of his deep and simple love for this +trembling slip of a girl beside him. + +The thought that God, as it were, had called him and he had been afraid +to run and answer to his name overpowered his timid, aching soul with +such a flood of emotion that he found himself struggling with a glorious +temptation to tear down the mountainside again to the house and play his +appointed part--utter his note in the chord even thus late. For the +essential bitterness and pain that lies at the heart of all transitory +earthly things--the gnawing sense of incompleteness and vanity that +touches the section of transitory existence men call "life," met face to +face with this passing glimpse of reality, timeless and unconditioned, +which the sound of the splendid name flashed so terrifically before his +awakened soul-vision,--and threatened to overwhelm him. + +In another instant he would have yielded and gone; forgotten even +Miriam, and all the promised sweetness of life with her half-planned, +when something came to pass abruptly that threw his will and all his +little calculations into a dark chaos of amazement where, by a kind +of electrically swift reaction, he realized that the one true, +possible and right thing for him was this very love he was about to cast +aside. His highest destiny was upon the unchanged old earth ... with +Miriam ... and Winky.... + +She turned and flung her arms round his neck in a passion of tears as +though she had divined his unspoken temptation ... and at the same time +this awful new thing was upon them both. It caught them like a tempest. +For a disharmony--a discord--a lying sound was loose upon the air from +those two voices far below. + +"Call me by my true name," she cried quickly, in an anguish of +terror; "for my soul is afraid.... Oh, love me most utterly, utterly, +utterly ... and save me!" + +Unnerved and shaking like a leaf, Spinrobin pressed her against +his heart. + +"I know you by name and you are mine," he tried to say, but the words +never left his lips. It was the love surging up in his tortured heart +that alone held him to sanity and prevented--as it seemed to him in that +appalling moment--the dissolution of his very being and hers. + +For Philip Skale had somewhere _uttered falsely_. + +A darting zigzag crack, as of lightning, ran over the giant fabric of +vibrations that covered the altering world as with a flood ... and sounds +that no man may hear and not die leaped awfully into being. The +suddenness and immensity of the catastrophe blinded these two listening +children-souls. Awe and terror usurped all other feelings ... but one. +Their love, being born of the spirit, held supreme, insulating them, so +to speak, from all invading disasters. + +Philip Skale had made a mistake in the pronunciation of the Name. + +The results were dreadful and immediate, and from all the surface of the +wakening world rose anguished voices. Spinrobin started up, lifting +Miriam into his arms. He spun dizzily for a moment between boulders and +trees, giving out a great wailing cry, unearthly enough had there been +any to hear it. Then he began to run wildly through the thick darkness. +In his ear--for her head lay close--he heard her dear voice, between the +sobs of collapse, calling his inner name most sweetly; and the sound +summoned to the front all in him that was best and manly. + +"My sweet Master, my sweet Master!" + +But he did not run far. About him on every side the night lifted as +though it were suddenly day. He saw the summits of the bleak mountains +agleam with the reflection of some great light that rushed upon them from +the valley. All the desolate landscape, hesitating like some hovering +ocean between the old pattern and the new, seemed to hang suspended amid +the desolation of the winter skies. Everything roared. It seemed the +ground shook. The very bones of the woods went shuddering together; the +hills toppled; and overhead, in some incredible depths of space, boomed +sounds as though the heavens split off into fragments and hurled the +constellations about the vault to swell these shattering thunders of a +collapsing world. + +The Letters of that terrible and august Name were passing over the face +of the universe--distorted because mispronounced--creative sounds, +disheveled and monstrous, because incompletely and incorrectly uttered. + +"Put me down," he heard Miriam cry where she lay smothered in his arms, +"and we can face everything together, and be safe. Our love is bigger +than it all and will protect us...." + +"Because it is complete," he cried incoherently in reply, seizing the +truth of her thought, and setting her upon the ground; "it includes even +this. It is a part of ... the Name ... correctly uttered ... for it is +true and pure." + +He heard her calling his inner name, and he began forthwith to call her +own as they stood there clinging to one another, mingling arms and hair +and lips in such a tumult of passion that it seemed as though all this +outer convulsion of the world was a small matter compared to the +commotion in their own hearts, revolutionized by the influx of a divine +love that sought to melt them into a single being. + +And as they looked down into the valley at their feet, too bewildered to +resist these mighty forces that stole the breath from their throats and +the strength from their muscles, they saw with a clearness as of day that +the House of Awe in which their love had wakened and matured was passing +away and being utterly consumed. + +In a flame of white fire, tongued and sheeted, streaked with gulfs of +black, and most terribly roaring, it rose with a prodigious crackling of +walls and roof towards the sky. Volumes of colored smoke, like hills +moving, went with it; and with it, too, went the forms--the substance of +their forms, at least, of their "sounds" released--of Philip Skale, Mrs. +Mawle, and all the paraphernalia of gongs, drapery, wires, sheeted walls, +sand-patterns, and the preparations of a quarter of a century of labor +and audacious research. For nothing could possibly survive in such a +furnace. The heat of it struck their faces where they stood even here +high upon the hills, and the currents of rising wind blew the girl's +tresses across his eyes and moved his own feathery hair upon his head. +The notes of those leaping flames were like thunder. + +"Watch now!" cried Miriam, though he divined the meaning from the gesture +of her free hand rather than actually heard the words. + +And, leaning their trembling bodies against a great boulder behind +them, they then saw in the midst of the conflagration, or hovering +dimly above it rather, the vast outlines of the captured sounds--the +Letters--escaping back again into the womb of eternal silence from which +they had been with such appalling courage evoked. In forms of dazzling +blackness they passed upwards in their chariots of flame, yet at the same +time passed _inwards_ in some amazing kind of spiral motion upon their +own axes, vanishing away with incredible swiftness and beauty deep down +into themselves ... and were gone. + +Realizing in some long-forgotten fashion of childhood the fearful majesty +of the wrath of Jehovah, yet secretly undismayed because each felt so +gloriously lost in their wonderful love, the bodies of Miriam and +Spinrobin dropped instinctively upon their knees, and, still tightly +clasped in one another's arms, bowed their foreheads to the ground, +touching the earth and leaves. + +But how long they rested thus upon the heart of the old earth, or +whether they slept, or whether, possibly, the inevitable reaction to all +the overstrain of the past hours led them through a period of +unconsciousness, neither of them quite knew. Nor was it possible for +them to have known, perhaps, that the lonely valley sheltering the House +of Awe, running tongue-like into these desolate hills, had the +unenviable reputation of trembling a little in sympathy with any +considerable shock of earthquake that came to move that portion of the +round globe from her sleep. Of this they knew as little, no doubt, as +they did of the ill-defined line of demarcation between experiences that +are objective, capable of being weighed and measured, and those that are +subjective, taking place--though with convincing authority--only in the +sphere of the mind.... + +All they do know, and Spinrobin tells it with an expression of supreme +happiness upon his shining round face, is that at length they stirred +as they lay, opened their eyes, turned and looked at one another, then +stood up. On Miriam's hair and lashes lay the message of the dew, and +in her clear eyes all the soft beauty of the stars that had watched +over them. + +But the stars themselves had gone. Over the hills ran the colored feet of +the dawn, swift and rosy, touching the spread of heathery miles with the +tints of approaching sunrise. The tops of the leafless trees stirred +gently with a whisper of wind that stole up from the distant sea. The +birds were singing. Over the surface of the old earth flew the magical +thrill of life. It caught these two children-lovers, sweeping them into +each other's arms as with wings. + +Out of all the amazing tempest of their recent experiences emerged this +ever-growing splendor of their deep and simple love. The kindly earth +they had chosen beckoned them down into the valley; the awful heaven they +had rejected smiled upon them approvingly, as the old sun topped the +hills and peeped upon them with his glorious eye. + +"Come, Miriam," breathed Spinrobin softly into her little ear; +"we'll go down into another valley ... and live happily together +forever and ever...." + +"Yes," she murmured, blushing with the rosiness of that exquisite +winter's dawn; "... you and I ... and ... and ..." + +But Spinrobin kissed the unborn name from her lips. "Hush!" he +whispered, "hush!" + +For the little "word" between these two was not yet made flesh. But the +dawn-wind caught up that "hush" and carried it to the trees and +undergrowth about them, and then ran thousand-footed before them to +whisper it to the valley where they were going. + +And Miriam, knowing the worship and protection in his delicate caress, +looked up into his face and smiled--and the smile in her grey eyes was +that ancient mother-smile which is coeval with life. For the word of +creation flamed in these two hearts, waiting only to be uttered. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Human Chord, by Algernon Blackwood + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUMAN CHORD *** + +***** This file should be named 11988-8.txt or 11988-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/9/8/11988/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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